MCC Palestine Update #17
As Ariel Sharon arrived in Washington, D.C. to open arms at the White House this past week, the Israeli government was busy proclaiming loudly that the siege on the occupied territories was being eased. While it was true that movement in some areas became somewhat easier, however, the mechanisms of siege remained in place for the most part (dirt and cement barriers, trenches, checkpoints), along with the military occupation which makes the siege possible.
Palestinians have no illusions about the "peace" plan Sharon discussed with U.S. President Bush--Sharon's vision of extended interim agreements will, like Oslo, simply allow for continued settlement expansion and Palestinian dispossession. Palestinians are also bemused when Sharon declares that he won't negotiate while violence continues: Palestinians, it appears, are expected to negotiate even as the everyday violence of the Israeli occupation continues.
Project Update
As engineers from the Palestinian Agricultural Relief Committees (PARC) were completing work on an agricultural road between Deir Ibziya and Ein Kinya (funded by MCC) on March 20, the Israeli military authorities arrived and put a halt to the work and forbade any further work on the road. Please keep PARC and the farmers of Deir Ibziya and Ein Kinya in your prayers.
Action suggestion
Write to your congressional representatives or parliamentary officials to inform them that the work of Mennonite Central Committee and other international relief and development agencies in Palestine (such as World Vision, Catholic Relief Services, Save the Children) is routinely disrupted and thwarted by random Israeli military procedures: roadblocks prevent free travel within the occupied territories; projects, such as the agricultural road mentioned above, are suspended for no reason; the siege in the occupied territories destroys projects aimed to promote sustainable development. Explain that a just, durable peace in Palestine/Israel cannot be achieved so long as the Israeli military occupation continues, constraining Palestinian economic development and making Palestinians prisoners in their own country. For information on how to get in touch with your elected officials, contact MCC's offices in Washington, DC (jdb@mail.mcc.org) or Ottawa (mccott@web.ca).
On March 31, the Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center in Jerusalem is organizing a day of prayer and fasting for justice and peace in Palestine/Israel. During this time of Lent, fasting and prayer is more vital than ever: consider organizing a day of prayer and fasting, either on March 31 or later in the year, as an act of solidarity with Palestinians and Israelis who struggle for justice and true peace.
Below is an article written by Dr. Hanan Ashrawi, a prominent Palestinian spokesperson. Dr. Ashrawi recently led a nonviolent protest march by women towards the Ram checkpoint in the north of Jerusalem: the march was met with tear gas and percussion grenades.
1. Sharon’s Message to the Palestinian People
Hanan Ashrawi
MIFTAH, 12 March 2001
To every man, woman, and child in the Palestinian territories. YOU are my target; you will be made to suffer; and you shall pay for the original crime of being a Palestinian and for being there.
Every camp, village, town, and city is hereby declared a prison. Instead of arresting each individual and having to build even more incarceration centers and foot the bill for your detention, I shall simply instruct the army to dig ditches and build barricades around your population centers, thus with one sweep render your isolation complete. Wherever you are, you are under arrest at your own expense and in your own home.
School children may not reach their schools and college students are to stay home. Some of you might try to climb over the dirt barriers or walk around the ditches. Take your chance! After Hours of misery you might find a tank (or more) lying in wait for you. You might find snipers on your hilltops or armored vehicles at your crossroads. Defy the siege at your own peril, and if you die don’t blame me. In my book, you are guilty of the subversive act of seeking education. The same applies to your teachers and school administrators who are guilty of the equally heinous crime of attempting to teach. Besides, I can close down all your educational institutions with a military order: That would tarnish my new and improved image in the West (and my new ally Shimon might not like it). This way, your institutions will collapse by themselves and ignorance will prevail.
All patients seeking treatment (including cancer, kidney, and heart patients) are hereby forbidden to reach their hospitals and clinics. You shall suffer in silence and you shall die in silence, for you are guilty of daring to claim the same human treatment reserved for real people not for subhuman genetic terrorists like you. All pregnant women will deliver in their own homes, or in ambulances and at checkpoints if they dare defy the siege. Should you suffer complications leading to the death of your infants (or to your own death), you have only yourselves to blame. For you are guilty of the ultimate crime of attempting to give birth to even more Palestinian terrorists. All mothers should know that no vaccination will be allowed to reach your children, for they deserve no protection against infancy and childhood diseases. They too will grow up to be a threat to our security.
All shopkeepers, tradesmen, industrialists, construction workers, businessmen (and women we don’t discriminate) are hereby forbidden from engaging in any kind of gainful activity. Since you cannot go anywhere anyway, you might as well stay home and watch your families starve even if your warehouses are full of products you cannot market. You too are guilty for attempting to conduct a normal life in defiance of the occupation.
This applies even more directly to farmers and peasants and all those involved in agricultural activity. Is it not enough that we confiscated most of your land to build settlements for those Brave settlers who had defied real hardships in New York, London, Moscow, and other such hostile places to come to the Land of Milk and Honey? You had no business being there, tilling the land and feeding your children. Now, we have to confiscate even more lands for these settlers to build by-pass roads (i.e. to bypass your reality) and to connect them to Israel directly without having to witness the mere fact of your existence. You call it apartheid? We call it security by the power of the gun.
If our brave settlers used their guns against you, uprooted your trees, destroyed your crops, and terrified your children, that is the least they could do given the hardships they endured in their drive to grab more land. We, of course, are more than happy to provide them with the full protection and support of our army while they wreak havoc amongst you, and will distort our laws to find them innocent no matter whom they kill, maim, or injure from amongst you. When will you learn that you do not count? They do, and we will make sure that in this equation you finally learn that you are the zero.
Let me be painfully frank with you. I blame you for forcing us to besiege you, kill you, shell your homes, assassinate your activists and leaders, and perform other such distasteful tasks (even though, I must admit I have had a long and rich experience in invading Arab lands, murdering civilians and prisoners of war, and massacring Palestinians wholesale while destroying whole villages). You are truly exasperating. We made you a generous offer whereby wewould annex only parts of your land (including our settlement clusters), expand settlements according to need (and will), annex Jerusalem and keep it under our sovereignty (while trying our best to render it Palestinian-free), and totally deny the Palestinian refugees their right to return. Yet, ungrateful wretches that you are, you persisted in your stubborn refusal. You claim international law and legitimacy? What nonsense! Only our law prevails, and we deem you illegal.
Despite all our attempts at persuasion (our gun ships, tanks, sniper fire, and military checkpoints are very subtle means of persuasion), you continued to deny us our rights to your lands and rights. We have to be able to help ourselves to that which is yours, what else is occupation for? What other use of power if not to be unleashed on the weak?
I therefore find you guilty and deserving of the utmost punishment (we may not have the death penalty in our laws, but we can carry out as many extra-judicial murders and assassinations as we please). You are guilty for holding on to your humanity, for daring to exercise a collective (and individual) will, for refusing to succumb, for daring to claim equal rights before the law, for maintaining your dignity and a stubborn yearning for freedom.
We, on the other hand, should be free to inflict any type of pain and brutality on you, and it should be your lot to lie down and die quietly. You must not be allowed to disturb our peace or security. We have the right to drive you to desperation, and should you protest or react, not only will you be conveniently branded as terrorists, we will also pound you into submission while calling on you to stop the violence and end terrorism.
Not only that, but we will stand up before CNN (and all the friendly Western press) to expose you for not accepting our hand stretched out to you in peace. Don’t worry. They will swallow it hook, line, and sinker. We have been feeding them our spin for years to the point where they have lost not only their critical judgment and journalistic integrity, but also their sense of sight and hearing when it comes to your image and narrative. They are guaranteed to pay attention only when you harm an Israeli or provide them with a negative proof of our stereotype. So don’t count on any audience or sympathy in the world for you are guilty and will be blamed. And if you suffer from any misguided notion that the UN or any other global body will come to your rescue, rest assured it ain’t gonna happen! Kofi Anan has been dispatched forthwith to prevent the destruction of statues (cultural heritage) in Afghanistan; he can’t be expected to deal with human reality at the same time. Besides, we might promise him a role in the peace process provided he behaves himself and looks the other way. We might have a harder time with your European friends, but they too can’t afford to irk us. As for the new US administration, don’t hold your breath. It, too, has decided to give me time to demonstrate my peace making skills. And I’m busy demonstrating those to the hilt, as you can see and feel. I will make peace with you if it takes everything that you have, including your land, lives, rights, and freedom.
My colleagues (including Chief of Staff General Mofaz and Minister of Defense General Ben Eliezer) concur with me. It is wonderful to be able to do my worst and still have Labor instruments (like Fuad) and apologists (like Peres) on my team. They certainly clean up my image! Besides, I’m not doing anymuch worse than Barak did. At least I‘m not shelling your homes for now (the Americans didn’t Like our use of Apaches for that purpose, and it didn’t look good before the cameras anyway.
So, if you know what is good for you, please behave like good little natives and kiss the hand that beats you. Say YES to peace, my way, and I guarantee you an efficient apartheid system. In the meantime, stop the violence and stop being the terrorists that youare. As for me, I remain forever a pacifist and a humanist (my way).
If only you would see it my way.
p.s. Note from Shimon (Peres). I really am pained at what you have to endure, but I am truly helpless having cast my lot with the Sharons, Liebermans and Ze’evis of this world. However, I will continue to work for my vision of new realities in the Middle East. This is only a sample of what it has in store for you. I have to rush and meet with my European colleagues and members of the press to let them know that Sharon isn’t all that bad. He is a new man for a new age. Given my (and his) history and age I have a tough job selling that spin! What do you think?
Tuesday, March 13
Sunday, March 11
MCC Palestine Update #16
MCC Palestine Update #16
The major developments in the occupied territories during the first week of the Sheres (Sharon-Peres) unity government have been the digging of trenches around villages west of Ramallah, isolating over 30 villages from educational institutions, health care facilities, and employment.
MCC has supported kindergarten renovation in many of these villages, and recently completed work in cooperation with the Palestinian Agricultural Relief Committees on a road connecting two of the villages, Ein Qinya and Deir Ibziya. Two of MCC's locally-appointed workers, Sahir Dajani and Viola Tucktuck, live in Ramallah. In the past they used to take one service (shared taxi) straight from Ramallah to Jerusalem, a 30 minute drive. With the recent Israeli siege measures, the trip has become a trail of tears. New checkpoints at the Qalandia refugee camp and at Kufr Aqab prevent taxis from making the journey, so someone wishing to commute between Ramallah and Jerusalem is forced to take two, often three separate taxis, walking across checkpoints which prevent taxis from passing.
These measures are creating a pressure cooker in Ramallah and elsewhere in the occupied territories: far from "pacifying" a supposedly violent population, these brutal measures inflame Palestinian frustration and anger. Please keep MCC's Palestinian workers and our Palestinian partners in your prayers as they cope with increased Israeli restrictions on Palestinian movement.
Below you will find an incisive analysis by Gideon Levy of different types of violence.
1. Defining violence
Gideon Levy
Haaretz, 11 March 2001
Who's a terrorist?
Aida Fatahia was walking in the street; Ubei Daraj was playing in the yard. She was the mother of three; he was nine years old. Both were killed last week by Israel Defense Forces (IDF) bullets, for no reason. Their killing raises once again, in all its horror, the question of whether Palestinian violence is the only violence that should be called terrorism. Is only car bombing terrorism, while shooting at a woman and child is not?.Fatahia and Daraj join a long list of men, women, and children who were innocent of wrongdoing and killed in the past five months by the IDF.
In the Israeli debate, their deaths were not a result of "terror actions" or "terrorist attacks" and the killers are not "terrorists." Those are terms used only for Palestinian violence. The right - and the left - in Israel always make that distinction: Palestinian violence is terrorism; Israel only defends itself. The huge gap between the numbers of innocent victims on both sides doesn't change this one- sided definition.
IDF Chief of Staff Shaul Mofaz, commander of an army that has killed almost 90 children in the last five months, calls the Palestinian Authority (PA) a "terrorist entity," and totally ignores the actions of the army - and the results of those actions. But the questions must be asked: Aren't massive land expropriations, systematic house destructions, the uprooting of orchards and groves, also a form of violence? Isn't cutting off entire towns and villages from their source of water a type of violence? Isn't limitation on freedom of movement by slicing whole areas of the population off from each other and denying medical attention to the residents - even when it's a matter of life and death - any less painful than highway shootings? A pregnant woman whose baby dies or a patient who died because they couldn't get to the hospital - something that has become almost routine in the territories - aren't they victims of terrible violence? What about the behavior of soldiers and police at checkpoints, on the roads, everywhere? The humiliations and beatings, and the settler's own violence against Palestinians - what should that be called?
For most Israelis, the violence is what the Palestinians are doing to us. The Israeli reaction is always just a reaction, much more fatal, perhaps, but a lot less ruthless. They blow up bombs in our markets, and we only shoot at the planners, the inciters, and the terrorists. So, sometimes chips may fly, as the saying lately goes, and some innocents are also killed, but of course, nobody meant it. That's just the way things are in war. That way, Israel always comes out the winner: It doesn't intend to kill innocent people. But does the intention matter to the many victims?
Israelis don't consider all of Israel's other steps - the sieges and curfews, the expropriations and house destruction - violence, of course. That's why Israel says it wants an end to the violence "and a return to the status quo ante," whether as a condition, by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, or as a demand, by Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, for renewal of the negotiations. When Israel says it wants a return to the status quo before the Intifada, it means it wants the Palestinians to stop their violence, and then Israel's violence, which is only a defensive reaction to the Palestinians', will naturally stop. In other words, Israel wants the Palestinians to reassume their meek surrender to the brutality of the occupation, while the violence of the occupation continues.
Back in Oslo, both sides agreed to avoid violence, Israel claims, so the current outbreak of violence is therefore a gross violation of the agreement. Moreover, since the Palestinians initiated the Intifada, - "they started it" -the responsibility for stopping it is on their shoulders. But wasn't the Intifada preceded by a series of violent acts by Israel, which expropriated land, closed areas, uprooted farms, expelled people, tortured suspects, dried up resources and destroyed homes - long before the Intifada, and with no less violence than the Palestinians?
Israel is not demanding an end to that violence. When it's only exploding buses and mortar rounds falling on settlements that is defined as violence, it's easy to blame the other side for violating agreements. But that's not the whole picture. Israel is not ready in the same breath to put an end to its own violence.
The demand for an end to violence is obviously right and justified. Violence - any violence - is wrong, and an end to the violence has to be on the top of the agenda of any political negotiation. Israel can and should demand that the Palestinians silence their weapons. But it should demand the same of itself, regarding all the various weapons it uses against the Palestinians. But when, as it did last week, Israel uses bulldozers to create impassable barriers to and from 33 villages, and there's no way for an ambulance or water container to get in, the demand for an end to the violence is outrageously hypocritical.
An end to the violence?
Why shouldn't Israel, as the stronger side, try being the first?
The major developments in the occupied territories during the first week of the Sheres (Sharon-Peres) unity government have been the digging of trenches around villages west of Ramallah, isolating over 30 villages from educational institutions, health care facilities, and employment.
MCC has supported kindergarten renovation in many of these villages, and recently completed work in cooperation with the Palestinian Agricultural Relief Committees on a road connecting two of the villages, Ein Qinya and Deir Ibziya. Two of MCC's locally-appointed workers, Sahir Dajani and Viola Tucktuck, live in Ramallah. In the past they used to take one service (shared taxi) straight from Ramallah to Jerusalem, a 30 minute drive. With the recent Israeli siege measures, the trip has become a trail of tears. New checkpoints at the Qalandia refugee camp and at Kufr Aqab prevent taxis from making the journey, so someone wishing to commute between Ramallah and Jerusalem is forced to take two, often three separate taxis, walking across checkpoints which prevent taxis from passing.
These measures are creating a pressure cooker in Ramallah and elsewhere in the occupied territories: far from "pacifying" a supposedly violent population, these brutal measures inflame Palestinian frustration and anger. Please keep MCC's Palestinian workers and our Palestinian partners in your prayers as they cope with increased Israeli restrictions on Palestinian movement.
Below you will find an incisive analysis by Gideon Levy of different types of violence.
1. Defining violence
Gideon Levy
Haaretz, 11 March 2001
Who's a terrorist?
Aida Fatahia was walking in the street; Ubei Daraj was playing in the yard. She was the mother of three; he was nine years old. Both were killed last week by Israel Defense Forces (IDF) bullets, for no reason. Their killing raises once again, in all its horror, the question of whether Palestinian violence is the only violence that should be called terrorism. Is only car bombing terrorism, while shooting at a woman and child is not?.Fatahia and Daraj join a long list of men, women, and children who were innocent of wrongdoing and killed in the past five months by the IDF.
In the Israeli debate, their deaths were not a result of "terror actions" or "terrorist attacks" and the killers are not "terrorists." Those are terms used only for Palestinian violence. The right - and the left - in Israel always make that distinction: Palestinian violence is terrorism; Israel only defends itself. The huge gap between the numbers of innocent victims on both sides doesn't change this one- sided definition.
IDF Chief of Staff Shaul Mofaz, commander of an army that has killed almost 90 children in the last five months, calls the Palestinian Authority (PA) a "terrorist entity," and totally ignores the actions of the army - and the results of those actions. But the questions must be asked: Aren't massive land expropriations, systematic house destructions, the uprooting of orchards and groves, also a form of violence? Isn't cutting off entire towns and villages from their source of water a type of violence? Isn't limitation on freedom of movement by slicing whole areas of the population off from each other and denying medical attention to the residents - even when it's a matter of life and death - any less painful than highway shootings? A pregnant woman whose baby dies or a patient who died because they couldn't get to the hospital - something that has become almost routine in the territories - aren't they victims of terrible violence? What about the behavior of soldiers and police at checkpoints, on the roads, everywhere? The humiliations and beatings, and the settler's own violence against Palestinians - what should that be called?
For most Israelis, the violence is what the Palestinians are doing to us. The Israeli reaction is always just a reaction, much more fatal, perhaps, but a lot less ruthless. They blow up bombs in our markets, and we only shoot at the planners, the inciters, and the terrorists. So, sometimes chips may fly, as the saying lately goes, and some innocents are also killed, but of course, nobody meant it. That's just the way things are in war. That way, Israel always comes out the winner: It doesn't intend to kill innocent people. But does the intention matter to the many victims?
Israelis don't consider all of Israel's other steps - the sieges and curfews, the expropriations and house destruction - violence, of course. That's why Israel says it wants an end to the violence "and a return to the status quo ante," whether as a condition, by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, or as a demand, by Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, for renewal of the negotiations. When Israel says it wants a return to the status quo before the Intifada, it means it wants the Palestinians to stop their violence, and then Israel's violence, which is only a defensive reaction to the Palestinians', will naturally stop. In other words, Israel wants the Palestinians to reassume their meek surrender to the brutality of the occupation, while the violence of the occupation continues.
Back in Oslo, both sides agreed to avoid violence, Israel claims, so the current outbreak of violence is therefore a gross violation of the agreement. Moreover, since the Palestinians initiated the Intifada, - "they started it" -the responsibility for stopping it is on their shoulders. But wasn't the Intifada preceded by a series of violent acts by Israel, which expropriated land, closed areas, uprooted farms, expelled people, tortured suspects, dried up resources and destroyed homes - long before the Intifada, and with no less violence than the Palestinians?
Israel is not demanding an end to that violence. When it's only exploding buses and mortar rounds falling on settlements that is defined as violence, it's easy to blame the other side for violating agreements. But that's not the whole picture. Israel is not ready in the same breath to put an end to its own violence.
The demand for an end to violence is obviously right and justified. Violence - any violence - is wrong, and an end to the violence has to be on the top of the agenda of any political negotiation. Israel can and should demand that the Palestinians silence their weapons. But it should demand the same of itself, regarding all the various weapons it uses against the Palestinians. But when, as it did last week, Israel uses bulldozers to create impassable barriers to and from 33 villages, and there's no way for an ambulance or water container to get in, the demand for an end to the violence is outrageously hypocritical.
An end to the violence?
Why shouldn't Israel, as the stronger side, try being the first?
Tuesday, March 6
MCC Palestine Update #15
MCC Palestine Update #15
The Lenten season of repentance and reflection is upon us. Sadly, Lent in Palestine/Israel promises to be more somber than usual, with the cycle of violence continuing to spin: three more Palestinians were killed over the weekend, including a boy helping his father paint inside their home in al-Bireh, while several Israelis were killed by a Palestinian suicide bomber. The Israeli network of checkpoints and blockades grows continually tighter: trenches were recently dug around Jericho and Bir Zeit.
MCC began its fiscal year on March 1. MCC Palestine is slowly starting to reorganize its development program, reducing the number of partners with whom we work. Over the coming year we will be working with the following groups:
Justice/Peace: The Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center in Jerusalem; MCC will sponsor Sabeel's work with Palestinian youth, women, and clergy; Badil Refugee Resource Center: MCC will support Badil's advocacy for the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes; The Wi'am Conflict Resolution Center in Bethlehem: in addition to assisting the center's promotion of conflict resolution within Palestinian society, MCC will also send one of Wi'am's workers to the Summer Peacebuilding Institute at Eastern Mennonite University.
Agriculture: Through The Center for Agricultural Services and the Union of Agricultural Work Committees MCC will support land reclamation and income-generating projects.
Women: MCC will continue to partner with the Women's Training Unit of the YMCA in Ramallah by offering training courses to women in agriculture, livestock production, and fiscal management.
Persons with Disabilities: In partnership with the al-Mostaqbal Society for the Blind and Visually Impaired in Khan Younis and the YMCA Rehabilitaiton Center in Beit Sahour MCC will sponsor projects which aim to build capacity among persons with disabilities.
Education: MCC will continue to support the ministry of the Hope Secondary School in Beit Jala, and will also work with 8-10 community kindergartens to identify infrastructural and institutional capacity needs.
Please remember MCC's workers and partners in your prayers, both during Lent and throughout the year. Your financial support of MCC's projects is also appreciated. Information about Palestine cash-giving projects for congregations, families, and individuals is available from MCC in Akron (tel. 717-859-1151) or directly from us upon request.
Below find a Lenten message issued by the Latin (Roman Catholic) Patriarch of Jerusalem, Michel Sabbah: his call for Israel to destroy churches, not homes, is particularly poignant.
1. Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem Letter for Lent 2001
Michel Sabbah, Patriarch -Jerusalem
1 March 2001
Brothers and Sisters,
1. The peace of Christ be with you. We begin our fast on Ash Wednesday, remembering the passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ, His death and His glorious Resurrection. He is our model: just as he prayed and fasted for forty days in the desert of Jericho, we also fast for the forty days that precede Easter. Jesus began his preaching, saying: "Repent for the Kingdom of God is close at hand" (cf. Mk 1,15). The Kingdom of God is God's presence in us, for He created us in His own image and likeness. The Kingdom of God is God who accompanies us in our present trials through which, today, he constructs our history.
2. Over the past few days I have visited some parishes in Palestine and I listened to the faithful. I also listened to the civil authorities. Their language is that of all the parishes, their concerns are the concerns of all of you. The first concern, which comprises all the others, is the difficult political situation these days: the closed roads, the blockade imposed on the towns and villages, the lack of work, the continual Israeli bombardment, the destruction of houses, and in addition, the difficulties within Palestinian society, and finally, the idea of emigration. Nonetheless, I saw, despite the trials, the anxieties and the idea of emigration, the basic will to stand firm and to patiently wait until our liberty is returned to us and until the image of God in us and also in those who oppress us is manifested.
3. Concerning emigration, we add our voice to the voice of all those who are patient, and we say to you: Brothers and sisters, do not leave your land. Be patient. It is here that God wants you, as believers in Him and witnesses of Jesus Christ in His land. Stand firm around the Holy Places. In this land, you are a part of the mystery of God in it. Try to reflect on this so that you might be able to see God and neighbour and understand the meaning of our presence here.
You have been called to a difficult life: do you have the courage to accept the difficult life to which God is calling you? Some say: "The future is not clear". The future depends on what you do today and on what you fear to do. Why leave to others the making of your future? This is a time when the believers say, with the freedom of children of God, what they want to express and thus contribute effectively towards the construction of their future, founded on the solid bases of peace, justice and love.
4. Furthermore, know that our help comes from one another and from our love for each other. If someone is in need, let them search out those in greater need than they are. Let them then bring the necessary help from the little or the lot that they possess. To all those who are hungry, we say that we want to share your hunger and share our bread with you. We invite the faithful in all our parishes and the religious to share their bread with those who are in need, either by inviting them to their tables or by covering the costs of daily food through contributions to Caritas or to some other philanthropic organization. We are living through a war which has been imposed on us. We must adapt ourselves and our way of living to privations and to generosity with regard to all our brothers and sisters in need.
5. As regards the houses which continually undergo the Israeli bombardments, we say to the Israelis: Destroy our churches but spare the homes of our faithful. If you must impose, at any price, collective punishment and if there needs be a ransom in order to procure the tranquillity of innocent children and families, we offer our churches: Destroy them; we will find other places in which to pray and we will continue to pray for ourselves and for you.
And to the Palestinian militants who think that it is necessary to direct their fire against the Israelis from populated houses, even when the orders are clear: Do not transform peaceful homes into a line of fire -- to them too we say: Obey the orders, preserve the cohesion of Palestinian society, and spare the homes of the innocent. We agree to offer our churches as ransom for any house that they want to demolish. However, we cannot agree to the demolition of the homes of our children so that they be forced to abandon their land.
6. During these days, we pray and we walk the way of repentance in order to go to meet God. We say to every Palestinian and to every Israeli who loves peace and asks for security: Try to see God with us. To the Israelis we say: In the sight of God, try to see that the Christian or Muslim Palestinian is not the image that you have decided to see: they are neither terrorists nor people who want to hate and kill. Try to see that your occupation of their land since 1967, the privation of their liberty, and, today, the blockade of the towns and villages with all the suffering that results, leads to that which you call terrorism.
In fact, this is the cry of the poor and the oppressed who are demanding their liberty and their dignity. Remember this and be just today. That which you call security measures is simply an invitation to more violence. Give back the land to its owners, give them back their liberty, listen to the voice of the oppressed and the poor for it is lifted up to God and God will listen one day and answer this cry.
7. To all those who suffer among our children, we say: Be patient. We remind you of the difficult commandment, love your enemies. "Love your enemies and pray for your persecutors, in order to become children of your Father who is in heaven, for He makes the sun rise on the evil and on the good and makes rain fall on the just and the unjust" (Mt 5:44-45). Love is not a weakness nor an escape. It is the vision of the face of God in every person, both Palestinian and Israeli. The Israeli who withholds our liberty remains a carrier of the image of God. With this vision I purify my heart of all anger and I ask the Israeli, with the force of the spirit and the truth, to put an end to the oppression, to end the occupation of the land and the privation of liberty.
We ask for justice and peace because God is justice and peace. For this we pray and we fast during these days in order to purify ourselves of our sins and in order to co-operate with God in the construction of our new history. Here, in our land, God was revealed and He manifested His love for all humanity.
Let us ask God to introduce us into the depths of His mystery so that we might see Him and love Him: thus we will be able, all of us together, to see Him in all of His creatures and to love Him in all of His children, in justice, equity and mercy. I ask God to give you the force of the spirit and of love so that you will all be ready to welcome the glory of the Resurrection. Amen.
+ Michel Sabbah, Patriarch -Jerusalem, 1 March, 2001
The Lenten season of repentance and reflection is upon us. Sadly, Lent in Palestine/Israel promises to be more somber than usual, with the cycle of violence continuing to spin: three more Palestinians were killed over the weekend, including a boy helping his father paint inside their home in al-Bireh, while several Israelis were killed by a Palestinian suicide bomber. The Israeli network of checkpoints and blockades grows continually tighter: trenches were recently dug around Jericho and Bir Zeit.
MCC began its fiscal year on March 1. MCC Palestine is slowly starting to reorganize its development program, reducing the number of partners with whom we work. Over the coming year we will be working with the following groups:
Justice/Peace: The Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center in Jerusalem; MCC will sponsor Sabeel's work with Palestinian youth, women, and clergy; Badil Refugee Resource Center: MCC will support Badil's advocacy for the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes; The Wi'am Conflict Resolution Center in Bethlehem: in addition to assisting the center's promotion of conflict resolution within Palestinian society, MCC will also send one of Wi'am's workers to the Summer Peacebuilding Institute at Eastern Mennonite University.
Agriculture: Through The Center for Agricultural Services and the Union of Agricultural Work Committees MCC will support land reclamation and income-generating projects.
Women: MCC will continue to partner with the Women's Training Unit of the YMCA in Ramallah by offering training courses to women in agriculture, livestock production, and fiscal management.
Persons with Disabilities: In partnership with the al-Mostaqbal Society for the Blind and Visually Impaired in Khan Younis and the YMCA Rehabilitaiton Center in Beit Sahour MCC will sponsor projects which aim to build capacity among persons with disabilities.
Education: MCC will continue to support the ministry of the Hope Secondary School in Beit Jala, and will also work with 8-10 community kindergartens to identify infrastructural and institutional capacity needs.
Please remember MCC's workers and partners in your prayers, both during Lent and throughout the year. Your financial support of MCC's projects is also appreciated. Information about Palestine cash-giving projects for congregations, families, and individuals is available from MCC in Akron (tel. 717-859-1151) or directly from us upon request.
Below find a Lenten message issued by the Latin (Roman Catholic) Patriarch of Jerusalem, Michel Sabbah: his call for Israel to destroy churches, not homes, is particularly poignant.
1. Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem Letter for Lent 2001
Michel Sabbah, Patriarch -Jerusalem
1 March 2001
Brothers and Sisters,
1. The peace of Christ be with you. We begin our fast on Ash Wednesday, remembering the passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ, His death and His glorious Resurrection. He is our model: just as he prayed and fasted for forty days in the desert of Jericho, we also fast for the forty days that precede Easter. Jesus began his preaching, saying: "Repent for the Kingdom of God is close at hand" (cf. Mk 1,15). The Kingdom of God is God's presence in us, for He created us in His own image and likeness. The Kingdom of God is God who accompanies us in our present trials through which, today, he constructs our history.
2. Over the past few days I have visited some parishes in Palestine and I listened to the faithful. I also listened to the civil authorities. Their language is that of all the parishes, their concerns are the concerns of all of you. The first concern, which comprises all the others, is the difficult political situation these days: the closed roads, the blockade imposed on the towns and villages, the lack of work, the continual Israeli bombardment, the destruction of houses, and in addition, the difficulties within Palestinian society, and finally, the idea of emigration. Nonetheless, I saw, despite the trials, the anxieties and the idea of emigration, the basic will to stand firm and to patiently wait until our liberty is returned to us and until the image of God in us and also in those who oppress us is manifested.
3. Concerning emigration, we add our voice to the voice of all those who are patient, and we say to you: Brothers and sisters, do not leave your land. Be patient. It is here that God wants you, as believers in Him and witnesses of Jesus Christ in His land. Stand firm around the Holy Places. In this land, you are a part of the mystery of God in it. Try to reflect on this so that you might be able to see God and neighbour and understand the meaning of our presence here.
You have been called to a difficult life: do you have the courage to accept the difficult life to which God is calling you? Some say: "The future is not clear". The future depends on what you do today and on what you fear to do. Why leave to others the making of your future? This is a time when the believers say, with the freedom of children of God, what they want to express and thus contribute effectively towards the construction of their future, founded on the solid bases of peace, justice and love.
4. Furthermore, know that our help comes from one another and from our love for each other. If someone is in need, let them search out those in greater need than they are. Let them then bring the necessary help from the little or the lot that they possess. To all those who are hungry, we say that we want to share your hunger and share our bread with you. We invite the faithful in all our parishes and the religious to share their bread with those who are in need, either by inviting them to their tables or by covering the costs of daily food through contributions to Caritas or to some other philanthropic organization. We are living through a war which has been imposed on us. We must adapt ourselves and our way of living to privations and to generosity with regard to all our brothers and sisters in need.
5. As regards the houses which continually undergo the Israeli bombardments, we say to the Israelis: Destroy our churches but spare the homes of our faithful. If you must impose, at any price, collective punishment and if there needs be a ransom in order to procure the tranquillity of innocent children and families, we offer our churches: Destroy them; we will find other places in which to pray and we will continue to pray for ourselves and for you.
And to the Palestinian militants who think that it is necessary to direct their fire against the Israelis from populated houses, even when the orders are clear: Do not transform peaceful homes into a line of fire -- to them too we say: Obey the orders, preserve the cohesion of Palestinian society, and spare the homes of the innocent. We agree to offer our churches as ransom for any house that they want to demolish. However, we cannot agree to the demolition of the homes of our children so that they be forced to abandon their land.
6. During these days, we pray and we walk the way of repentance in order to go to meet God. We say to every Palestinian and to every Israeli who loves peace and asks for security: Try to see God with us. To the Israelis we say: In the sight of God, try to see that the Christian or Muslim Palestinian is not the image that you have decided to see: they are neither terrorists nor people who want to hate and kill. Try to see that your occupation of their land since 1967, the privation of their liberty, and, today, the blockade of the towns and villages with all the suffering that results, leads to that which you call terrorism.
In fact, this is the cry of the poor and the oppressed who are demanding their liberty and their dignity. Remember this and be just today. That which you call security measures is simply an invitation to more violence. Give back the land to its owners, give them back their liberty, listen to the voice of the oppressed and the poor for it is lifted up to God and God will listen one day and answer this cry.
7. To all those who suffer among our children, we say: Be patient. We remind you of the difficult commandment, love your enemies. "Love your enemies and pray for your persecutors, in order to become children of your Father who is in heaven, for He makes the sun rise on the evil and on the good and makes rain fall on the just and the unjust" (Mt 5:44-45). Love is not a weakness nor an escape. It is the vision of the face of God in every person, both Palestinian and Israeli. The Israeli who withholds our liberty remains a carrier of the image of God. With this vision I purify my heart of all anger and I ask the Israeli, with the force of the spirit and the truth, to put an end to the oppression, to end the occupation of the land and the privation of liberty.
We ask for justice and peace because God is justice and peace. For this we pray and we fast during these days in order to purify ourselves of our sins and in order to co-operate with God in the construction of our new history. Here, in our land, God was revealed and He manifested His love for all humanity.
Let us ask God to introduce us into the depths of His mystery so that we might see Him and love Him: thus we will be able, all of us together, to see Him in all of His creatures and to love Him in all of His children, in justice, equity and mercy. I ask God to give you the force of the spirit and of love so that you will all be ready to welcome the glory of the Resurrection. Amen.
+ Michel Sabbah, Patriarch -Jerusalem, 1 March, 2001
Tuesday, February 27
MCC Palestine Update #14
MCC Palestine Update #14
This past week the Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center, an MCC justice-building partner, held an international conference under the title, "Speaking Truth, Seeking Justice." Nearly 400 people from 21 countries participated. In addition to MCC Palestine workers, MCC also hosted other partners and workers at the conference: Bishop Marcos, a Coptic Orthodox leader from Egypt; Harley Eagle, a member of the Dakota nation and program co-director for MCC in Pine Ridge, South Dakota; and Craig Cressman Anderson, MCC Egypt country co-representative. A variety of speakers addressed the structures of domination which imprison Palestinians and which hold Israelis captive to the myth of security through violence. Participants also had the opportunity to travel inside the occupied West Bank to see the structures of domination at work: siege barriers, settlement expansion, demolished homes, land confiscation. Many of the conference presentations can be viewed at Sabeel's website, www.sabeel.org.
Copies of the MCC Peace Office Newsletter, Palestine in Travail, are still available for a suggested donation of US $1 a copy from MCC. The newsletter would be a good resource for Sunday School or small group discussions. Contact Bob Herr or Esther O'Hara for copies: tel.: 717-859-1151; e-mail: bh@mail.mcc.org; regular mail: Peace Office, MCC, P.O. Box 500, Akron, PA 17501-0500. The newsletter is also available on MCC's website, www.mcc.org.
Below are two items. The first is a summary of a report issued by UNSCO, the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Occupied Territories, on the economic situation within the occupied Palestinian territories during siege conditions. The second is a typically insightful piece of analysis by Amira Hass, reporter for the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz.
1. UNITED NATIONS – Office of the UN Special Co-ordinator: The Impact on the Palestinian Economy of Confrontations, Mobility Restrictions and Border Closures
1 October 2000—31 January 2001
Summary
Movement Restrictions
The lack of freedom of movement for people and goods caused by the present crisis has resulted in socio-economic hardships in the Palestinian Territory. During the 123-day period 1 October 2000—31 January 2001, the Israeli-Palestinian border used for labour and trade flows was closed for 93 days or 75.6% of the time. Internal movement restrictions and internal closures—partial or severe—have been in place for 100% of the time in the West Bank and for 89% of time in Gaza. The international border crossings to Jordan (from the West Bank) and to Egypt (from Gaza) have been closed for 29% and 50% of the time, respectively.
Direct Economic Losses
The direct economic losses arising from movement restrictions are estimated at 50% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for the 4-month period and 75% of wage income earned by Palestinian workers in Israel. The GDP loss is estimated at USD 907.3 million while the loss of labour income from employment in Israel is estimated at USD 243.4 million. The total loss is estimated at USD 1,150.7 million, equal to 20 per cent of the projected GDP for the year 2000 (assuming no border closures). The loss is about USD 11 million per working day or USD 3.5 per person per working day during the reporting period.
In addition, there have been hundreds of millions of USD in damage to public buildings and infrastructure and to private property and agricultural land, in costs for caring for more than 11,000 injured Palestinians, and in public revenue losses and other effects of the closures.
Unemployment
Loss of employment in Israel plus mobility restrictions and border closures have resulted in an average unemployment rate of 38 per cent (more than 250,000 persons) as compared to 11 per cent (71,000 persons) in the first 9 months of 2000. Due to the high dependency ratio in the Palestinian Territory unemployment now directly effects the incomes of about 900,000 people or 29 per cent of the population.
Per Capita Income
In the absence of border closures, per capita income was projected to be about USD 2,000 in the Palestinian Territory in the year 2000. As a result of the crisis, border closures and internal movement restrictions, this has been reduced to an estimated USD 1,680—a decline of 16%.
Poverty
Since the beginning of the crisis, there has been a 50% increase in the number of people living below the poverty line, estimated by the World Bank as USD 2.10 per person per day in consumption expenditures (less than NIS 9 per day). The number of poor has increased from about 650,000 persons to 1 million persons. The poverty rate has increased from 21% to 32%.
2. The revolt of the guinea-pigs
Amira Hass
Haaretz, 21 February 2001
Members of Israel's security and intelligence establishments (and their representatives in the political system) are now announcing the imminent collapse of the Palestinian Authority (PA).One arm of the security establishment orders concrete blocks placed at entrances to Palestinian villages, preventing the residents from reaching their fields or their jobs in the cities, while another sheds crocodile tears over the population's lost income. One order prevents PA officials from reaching their offices in the various cities, while a press briefing explains to reporters that the PA is not functioning. With one statement the political establishment prevents the supply of fuel and gas to the Gaza Strip and blocks the transfer of tax and tariff income to the PA, while another notes the growing gap between the Palestinian public and the PA, which cannot supply that public with decent services.
This feigned innocence fits in well with the victorious, Israeli, representation of the events: Arafat initiated the Al Aqsa Intifada in breach of agreements made with him - or at the very least, he did not stop it. Arafat is not putting the Intifada down, and therefore Israel's policy of collective punishment and acts of repression - military, financial and logistic - are a legitimate defense of the attacked side: Israel.
According to this representation of reality, everything started with the first Palestinian stone, the first Palestinian bullet and the road-side bomb on the Netzarim-Karni road.
There is probably little chance of convincing the Israeli public today that there is a link between that stone, bullet and bomb and the fact that the Oslo years did not offer the Palestinian public a future of independence, nor a hope for social well-being. Those who in recent years gladly adopted the victorious, Israeli, version of reality - alleging that the occupation is over because the PA got administrative control and policing powers over most of the Palestinian population in isolated enclaves - cannot be and are not interested in recognizing the occupied population's right to rebel. Those who yield to the victim-mindset that is daily fed by Israeli occupation mechanisms; those who count their own dead and wounded while remaining indifferent to the huge number of dead and wounded on the other side, are making no attempt to understand the meaning of the experiment that began in the last decade of the 20th century.
The Oslo lab experiment must be judged, not on the basis of the promises and declarations of its architects, but on the basis of the Israeli policy implemented on the ground. In short, the experiment tried to examine the possibility of continuing the rule over the Palestinians by shutting them into autonomous bordered-off areas, and taking over as much as possible of their water and land resources. An integral part of this experiment was cultivating excess privileges for the Palestinian leadership - giving it the stamp of approval and Western legitimacy as substitutes for recognizing United Nations resolutions regarding the solution for the conflict. Regardless of the personal feelings and past record of each member of this over-privileged leadership - long out of touch with its own people - it served at one and the same time as both one of the guinea pigs and one of the junior partners running the experiment.
The movement restrictions, the freeze on transferring funds to the PA and the destruction of the PA's economy are not an invention of recent months. They were a fundamental ingredient of the Oslo experiment, and of Madrid before it: On the one hand, international conferences allocating huge sums to the Palestinian Authority to compensate for the infrastructure destruction caused by the Israeli occupation since 1967; and on the other hand, a sealing of the borders - sending half the population below the poverty line and causing losses totaling more than the donations. This happened in March 1993, in the summer of 1995, and in the winter of 1996. The collective punishment policy at the time was not only a conditioned reflex of a veteran and experienced occupation mechanism, but also a tactic intended to ensure the taming of the Palestinian leadership into accepting the rules laid down by the victorious side: We will draw your people's borders of independence; you will persecute anyone who opposes this; you will become rich, thanks to the special freedom of movement we will grant only you; and we will all call this a peace process. If you break these rules, we have the power to jeopardize your public position, weaken your rule, and cut your sources of income.
The experiment is not over yet: It has neither been deemed a success nor declared a failure. CIA-favorite Jibril Rajoub's talks this week in Washington indicate how important the success of the experiment is to the United States - not only to Israel - and how crucial it is to some in the Palestinian leadership. The main problem, overlooked by the scientists, is that the human guinea pigs are rebelling against the experiment
This past week the Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center, an MCC justice-building partner, held an international conference under the title, "Speaking Truth, Seeking Justice." Nearly 400 people from 21 countries participated. In addition to MCC Palestine workers, MCC also hosted other partners and workers at the conference: Bishop Marcos, a Coptic Orthodox leader from Egypt; Harley Eagle, a member of the Dakota nation and program co-director for MCC in Pine Ridge, South Dakota; and Craig Cressman Anderson, MCC Egypt country co-representative. A variety of speakers addressed the structures of domination which imprison Palestinians and which hold Israelis captive to the myth of security through violence. Participants also had the opportunity to travel inside the occupied West Bank to see the structures of domination at work: siege barriers, settlement expansion, demolished homes, land confiscation. Many of the conference presentations can be viewed at Sabeel's website, www.sabeel.org.
Copies of the MCC Peace Office Newsletter, Palestine in Travail, are still available for a suggested donation of US $1 a copy from MCC. The newsletter would be a good resource for Sunday School or small group discussions. Contact Bob Herr or Esther O'Hara for copies: tel.: 717-859-1151; e-mail: bh@mail.mcc.org; regular mail: Peace Office, MCC, P.O. Box 500, Akron, PA 17501-0500. The newsletter is also available on MCC's website, www.mcc.org.
Below are two items. The first is a summary of a report issued by UNSCO, the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Occupied Territories, on the economic situation within the occupied Palestinian territories during siege conditions. The second is a typically insightful piece of analysis by Amira Hass, reporter for the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz.
1. UNITED NATIONS – Office of the UN Special Co-ordinator: The Impact on the Palestinian Economy of Confrontations, Mobility Restrictions and Border Closures
1 October 2000—31 January 2001
Summary
Movement Restrictions
The lack of freedom of movement for people and goods caused by the present crisis has resulted in socio-economic hardships in the Palestinian Territory. During the 123-day period 1 October 2000—31 January 2001, the Israeli-Palestinian border used for labour and trade flows was closed for 93 days or 75.6% of the time. Internal movement restrictions and internal closures—partial or severe—have been in place for 100% of the time in the West Bank and for 89% of time in Gaza. The international border crossings to Jordan (from the West Bank) and to Egypt (from Gaza) have been closed for 29% and 50% of the time, respectively.
Direct Economic Losses
The direct economic losses arising from movement restrictions are estimated at 50% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for the 4-month period and 75% of wage income earned by Palestinian workers in Israel. The GDP loss is estimated at USD 907.3 million while the loss of labour income from employment in Israel is estimated at USD 243.4 million. The total loss is estimated at USD 1,150.7 million, equal to 20 per cent of the projected GDP for the year 2000 (assuming no border closures). The loss is about USD 11 million per working day or USD 3.5 per person per working day during the reporting period.
In addition, there have been hundreds of millions of USD in damage to public buildings and infrastructure and to private property and agricultural land, in costs for caring for more than 11,000 injured Palestinians, and in public revenue losses and other effects of the closures.
Unemployment
Loss of employment in Israel plus mobility restrictions and border closures have resulted in an average unemployment rate of 38 per cent (more than 250,000 persons) as compared to 11 per cent (71,000 persons) in the first 9 months of 2000. Due to the high dependency ratio in the Palestinian Territory unemployment now directly effects the incomes of about 900,000 people or 29 per cent of the population.
Per Capita Income
In the absence of border closures, per capita income was projected to be about USD 2,000 in the Palestinian Territory in the year 2000. As a result of the crisis, border closures and internal movement restrictions, this has been reduced to an estimated USD 1,680—a decline of 16%.
Poverty
Since the beginning of the crisis, there has been a 50% increase in the number of people living below the poverty line, estimated by the World Bank as USD 2.10 per person per day in consumption expenditures (less than NIS 9 per day). The number of poor has increased from about 650,000 persons to 1 million persons. The poverty rate has increased from 21% to 32%.
2. The revolt of the guinea-pigs
Amira Hass
Haaretz, 21 February 2001
Members of Israel's security and intelligence establishments (and their representatives in the political system) are now announcing the imminent collapse of the Palestinian Authority (PA).One arm of the security establishment orders concrete blocks placed at entrances to Palestinian villages, preventing the residents from reaching their fields or their jobs in the cities, while another sheds crocodile tears over the population's lost income. One order prevents PA officials from reaching their offices in the various cities, while a press briefing explains to reporters that the PA is not functioning. With one statement the political establishment prevents the supply of fuel and gas to the Gaza Strip and blocks the transfer of tax and tariff income to the PA, while another notes the growing gap between the Palestinian public and the PA, which cannot supply that public with decent services.
This feigned innocence fits in well with the victorious, Israeli, representation of the events: Arafat initiated the Al Aqsa Intifada in breach of agreements made with him - or at the very least, he did not stop it. Arafat is not putting the Intifada down, and therefore Israel's policy of collective punishment and acts of repression - military, financial and logistic - are a legitimate defense of the attacked side: Israel.
According to this representation of reality, everything started with the first Palestinian stone, the first Palestinian bullet and the road-side bomb on the Netzarim-Karni road.
There is probably little chance of convincing the Israeli public today that there is a link between that stone, bullet and bomb and the fact that the Oslo years did not offer the Palestinian public a future of independence, nor a hope for social well-being. Those who in recent years gladly adopted the victorious, Israeli, version of reality - alleging that the occupation is over because the PA got administrative control and policing powers over most of the Palestinian population in isolated enclaves - cannot be and are not interested in recognizing the occupied population's right to rebel. Those who yield to the victim-mindset that is daily fed by Israeli occupation mechanisms; those who count their own dead and wounded while remaining indifferent to the huge number of dead and wounded on the other side, are making no attempt to understand the meaning of the experiment that began in the last decade of the 20th century.
The Oslo lab experiment must be judged, not on the basis of the promises and declarations of its architects, but on the basis of the Israeli policy implemented on the ground. In short, the experiment tried to examine the possibility of continuing the rule over the Palestinians by shutting them into autonomous bordered-off areas, and taking over as much as possible of their water and land resources. An integral part of this experiment was cultivating excess privileges for the Palestinian leadership - giving it the stamp of approval and Western legitimacy as substitutes for recognizing United Nations resolutions regarding the solution for the conflict. Regardless of the personal feelings and past record of each member of this over-privileged leadership - long out of touch with its own people - it served at one and the same time as both one of the guinea pigs and one of the junior partners running the experiment.
The movement restrictions, the freeze on transferring funds to the PA and the destruction of the PA's economy are not an invention of recent months. They were a fundamental ingredient of the Oslo experiment, and of Madrid before it: On the one hand, international conferences allocating huge sums to the Palestinian Authority to compensate for the infrastructure destruction caused by the Israeli occupation since 1967; and on the other hand, a sealing of the borders - sending half the population below the poverty line and causing losses totaling more than the donations. This happened in March 1993, in the summer of 1995, and in the winter of 1996. The collective punishment policy at the time was not only a conditioned reflex of a veteran and experienced occupation mechanism, but also a tactic intended to ensure the taming of the Palestinian leadership into accepting the rules laid down by the victorious side: We will draw your people's borders of independence; you will persecute anyone who opposes this; you will become rich, thanks to the special freedom of movement we will grant only you; and we will all call this a peace process. If you break these rules, we have the power to jeopardize your public position, weaken your rule, and cut your sources of income.
The experiment is not over yet: It has neither been deemed a success nor declared a failure. CIA-favorite Jibril Rajoub's talks this week in Washington indicate how important the success of the experiment is to the United States - not only to Israel - and how crucial it is to some in the Palestinian leadership. The main problem, overlooked by the scientists, is that the human guinea pigs are rebelling against the experiment
Wednesday, February 21
MCC Palestine Update #13
MCC Palestine Update #13
21 February 2001
The gloom and desperation which has been hanging over Palestine/Israel for the past five months has become more intense over the past week. Israeli Prime Minister-elect Ariel Sharon appears poised to form a "national unity" government which will dash all hopes of a final status accord with the Palestinians (although many analysts predict yet another "interim" accord which will, as before, further solidify Israel's occupation of the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem). The Palestinian and Israeli death tolls continued their macabre rise, with Palestinians killed in Gaza and Hebron and eight Israelis killed by a Palestinian bus driver. Twenty families in the Mawasi section of the Gaza Strip, hemmed in by the Gush Qatif bloc of settlements, had their homes demolished by Israeli army bulldozers: international protest had provided a momentary reprieve from the demolitions earlier in the week, but the Israeli military returned when the international spotlight had moved on. Travel within the occupied territories has become increasingly difficult for Palestinians, the noose of checkpoints, tanks, and dirt and cement blockades hemming in movement.
This past week the MCC Palestine office hosted visitors from MCC's Middle East, Peace Office, Washington, D.C., New York, and Ottawa desks to meet with MCC's Palestinian partners and to brainstorm about how MCC can be most creative and effective in its advocacy for justice in Palestine/Israel within Mennonite congregations and to the Canadian and United States governments: your thoughts on this topic, of course, are very much appreciated.
Below are two pieces from the Israeli press. The first, by Gideon Levy, is a reflection on the holiday of Tu B-Shvat, an Arbor Day equivalent. The second, by former Jerusalem deputy mayor Meron Benvenisti, nicely captures the grim mood of the present hour and ends with a long-term vision of hope for Palestinian-Israeli equality and coexistence in one, binational, secular state in the entire land of Palestine/Israel.
1. Do you remember the tree that you planted?
Gideon Levy
Haaretz, 11 February 2001
It's said that God is in the detail. Maybe the devil is as well. Sometimes the tales about the little conquests teach more than do the stories of big atrocities. The seemingly marginal tales reveal Israel's double moral standard. The mass uprooting of trees in the territories in recent months, by the army and by the settlers, does not usually involve bloodshed. Israel's conquest has often been accompanied by cruel actions in which more than just the trees are victims. But on Tu Bishvat, Israel's Arbor Day, last Thursday, the hypocrisy was again apparent. This country, which devotes so much effort to tree planting, that has a special festival for trees, whose children have long been called on to contribute to the exalted cause, whose poets have heaped praise on the tree, at the same time so easily uproots and chops down thousands of trees that belong to others.
From the biblical verse, "And you will come to the land and you will plant trees in it" to Naomi Shemer's "Do not uproot what is planted"; from the trees that we planted in our childhood and the weekly Friday donation in the Jewish National Fund's blue box, the tree holds a special place in our hearts. When Tu Bishvat arrives and the country is awash with ceremonies, songs and slogans in praise of trees, while at the same time thousands of trees in the territories have been deliberately uprooted by that same tree-loving nation, the beautiful childhood festival of trees is turned into an ugly adult festival of hypocrisy.
"Do you remember the tree that you planted in your childhood?" was the question asked by the announcer with the pleasant voice in JNF's recent broadcasts, to the sound of chirping birds in the background. "It's now become a forest." The farmer Yassin Shamalwa also remembers the trees that his father and grandfather planted. But they're not a forest now. Now they are a pile of dead twigs. A few weeks ago, late one evening, Shamalwa was frightened by the pulsating sound of a bulldozer in his olive orchard. He rushed over to the area, but soldiers with drawn guns stopped him from getting near. He ran to the mosque in his village, Kafr Hares, near Ariel, and used the muezzin's loudspeaker to call out desperately for assistance. It didn't help. The bulldozer uprooted 30 of the trees planted by his father and grandfather.
He was given no advance notice, as laid down in the law, and nobody bothered to explain the reasons for the action to him. No one presented him with a written order, he was given no opportunity to appeal, nor did anybody offer him compensation for the state's act of vandalism on his land. "Why do you do this?" he tried asking in English, and according to Shamalwa a soldier answered, "Go to Arafat and Yossi Sarid. They'll explain to you."
The official justification, of course, is security: stones were thrown at travelers on the nearby road, and apparently they came from the olive orchard. Now, instead of the trees that could conceal stone throwers, there are piles of chopped trees that are equally able to conceal someone, and an old Palestinian farmer whose world has collapsed around him. For him the trees were much more than a possession. As the JNF says in its announcements, they are "presented with love" and cutting them down entails much more than just the loss of income. The small group of devoted activists from B'Tselem, the human rights organization, who, on Tu Bishvat brought him new olive saplings, made him a little emotional. It should be emphasized that it was B'Tselem and not the JNF that loves the forests so much.
A drive along the roads of Samaria shows a depressing picture. There are hundreds of uprooted trees, mostly olive trees, along the roadsides, the fruit of recent weeks' labor. B'Tselem's on-site researchers have counted 2,200 uprooted trees just in the area around Nablus, in addition to 2,100 that have been destroyed since the Intifada broke out. Palestinian organizations give higher numbers. Sometimes trees are dug up with their roots, sometimes only the branches are sawn off. Sometimes plots of land on both sides of the road are dug up, sometimes only one side - which is somewhat puzzling. Sometimes the farmers give up and capitulate, and sometimes, as in the case of the orchards of the village of Dir Isstia, they replant the stumps with stubbornness and devotion. Sometimes the destruction is caused by the IDF and sometimes by the settlers, as an act of retaliation. Tabeth Iyov, a farmer in the village of Nebi Salah, west of Ramallah, had his whole orchard, 146 trees, destroyed when the settlers were venting their anger, the day after the killing of Sarah Lisha from Halamish, in November. Of course, Iyov is not the only farmer to fall victim to such acts of revenge. The settlers, with their pretensions to being the greatest "lovers of the land," are not sickened by the destruction of the landscape.
"In the Land of Israel the trees cry. Soldiers of Rome raze dunam after dunam. They have no compassion for the land's covering, for the seven species." So the poet, Aharon Shabtai wrote in a poem published in last week's culture and literature supplement of Ha'aretz (in Hebrew). Shabtai laments the digging up of trees in order "to give building rights to Burger King and to Kentucky Fried Chicken" - which is another matter. But not far away, even more shockingly, Israel is mercilessly chopping down other trees, "non-Jewish" trees; and in so doing it causes not only the trees to weep, but also those who plant them: those who remember the trees planted in their childhood - trees that can no longer grow .
2. The worst script is coming true
Meron Benvenisti
Haaretz, 15 February 2001
How tempting it is to mock those who preached in favor of a crusade against Ariel Sharon: "fanatic nationalist," "blood-shedder," "yesterday's man" (Amos Oz, The Guardian, February 8), who find themselves facing the crawling of Ehud Barak (who was "ahead of [his] time" and had "the courage to compromise and make peace") and his party toward a national unity government. A few of them express fierce opposition "to the betrayal of the way of peace," but others "feel a great yearning for unity, in light of the intensification of the terror" and find solace in the agreed-upon platform of the government, according to which the "effort toward a final agreement" would continue, as well as its opposite: "advancing peace through interim agreements.". But the mockery over the sermonizing of the "Council of Leftist Sages," which evaporated in the emptiness of its words, was erased by the terrible tragedy that occurred yesterday in these parts. Now "national unity" - that tribal closing of ranks against the murderous Other - has become a necessity that no one can oppose, and any attempt to control events, even by proposing a realistic diplomatic alternative, is hopeless.
The worst script is about to take place: severe retaliatory actions will lead to acts of blood revenge whose motives are personal; these in turn will prompt even harsher collective punishment, which will ruin the remnants of authority remaining to the Palestinian Authority. Attempts to consolidate a rational approach that aspires to launch a joint effort to manage the crisis will run into internal disagreements, which will be won by those who always thrive on the rotting bed of hate and bloodletting.
The atmosphere, which enables only the increasing use of force, will lead to an extreme escalation that will create pressure for international intervention. The chances for external intervention along the lines of Bosnia or Kosovo are extremely slight, both because the world's cop is shrugging off its duties, with the United States increasingly isolating itself, and also because the intervention - which would restrain the actions of the Jewish State - would be seen as an anti-Semitic act and thus there would be hesitation to initiate it. The situation that will be created will make all the usual "solutions" - two states for two peoples, an end to the occupation, the dismantling of settlements, final status agreements, interim agreements, and others - laughable.
Reality would be exposed in all its nakedness not as a "problem" but as a "condition": a reality that was described nearly 20 years ago, earning a torrent of ridicule and the name "the theory of irreversibility." "A basic, almost primitive conflict, not an international conflict; a conflict that raises existential and meta-political questions of self-identity, denial of the identity of the opposing side, atavistic fears of physical annihilation, deep feelings of absolute justice that brooks no compromise and feelings of exclusive possessiveness; a dynamic, violent and unstable conflict - as in every binational or multi-ethnic state where the ruling group has a monopoly on the power of enforcement, the group that is ruled turns to violent civil disobedience to which the ruling group responds with violence. The confrontation escalates but it is confined to its internal, Israeli-Palestinian framework." It's not generally accepted for someone to quote himself, but perhaps these harsh words will serve as food for thought for anyone who was drawn to illusions concerning the "end of the conflict" and is now hopeless in the face of the collapse of his illusions. Out of the cycle of violence the gradual, hesitant understanding - perhaps the dream - will grow, that the only way is through a struggle to create a land of Israel/Palestine that is undivided in both physical and human terms, pluralistic and open; a land in which civilized relations, human touch, intimate coexistence and a link to a common homeland would be stronger than militant tribalism and the separation into national ghettoes. Many years may have to pass until the notion of a binational framework - federated or otherwise - will become a legitimate topic for Israeli and Palestinian political discourse. In the meantime, we can certainly expect a great deal of sermonizing regarding "separation" and "the establishment of a Palestinian state" as indispensable solutions; at least this preaching should be carried out with the humility dictated by events and not with the arrogance of know-it-alls .
21 February 2001
The gloom and desperation which has been hanging over Palestine/Israel for the past five months has become more intense over the past week. Israeli Prime Minister-elect Ariel Sharon appears poised to form a "national unity" government which will dash all hopes of a final status accord with the Palestinians (although many analysts predict yet another "interim" accord which will, as before, further solidify Israel's occupation of the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem). The Palestinian and Israeli death tolls continued their macabre rise, with Palestinians killed in Gaza and Hebron and eight Israelis killed by a Palestinian bus driver. Twenty families in the Mawasi section of the Gaza Strip, hemmed in by the Gush Qatif bloc of settlements, had their homes demolished by Israeli army bulldozers: international protest had provided a momentary reprieve from the demolitions earlier in the week, but the Israeli military returned when the international spotlight had moved on. Travel within the occupied territories has become increasingly difficult for Palestinians, the noose of checkpoints, tanks, and dirt and cement blockades hemming in movement.
This past week the MCC Palestine office hosted visitors from MCC's Middle East, Peace Office, Washington, D.C., New York, and Ottawa desks to meet with MCC's Palestinian partners and to brainstorm about how MCC can be most creative and effective in its advocacy for justice in Palestine/Israel within Mennonite congregations and to the Canadian and United States governments: your thoughts on this topic, of course, are very much appreciated.
Below are two pieces from the Israeli press. The first, by Gideon Levy, is a reflection on the holiday of Tu B-Shvat, an Arbor Day equivalent. The second, by former Jerusalem deputy mayor Meron Benvenisti, nicely captures the grim mood of the present hour and ends with a long-term vision of hope for Palestinian-Israeli equality and coexistence in one, binational, secular state in the entire land of Palestine/Israel.
1. Do you remember the tree that you planted?
Gideon Levy
Haaretz, 11 February 2001
It's said that God is in the detail. Maybe the devil is as well. Sometimes the tales about the little conquests teach more than do the stories of big atrocities. The seemingly marginal tales reveal Israel's double moral standard. The mass uprooting of trees in the territories in recent months, by the army and by the settlers, does not usually involve bloodshed. Israel's conquest has often been accompanied by cruel actions in which more than just the trees are victims. But on Tu Bishvat, Israel's Arbor Day, last Thursday, the hypocrisy was again apparent. This country, which devotes so much effort to tree planting, that has a special festival for trees, whose children have long been called on to contribute to the exalted cause, whose poets have heaped praise on the tree, at the same time so easily uproots and chops down thousands of trees that belong to others.
From the biblical verse, "And you will come to the land and you will plant trees in it" to Naomi Shemer's "Do not uproot what is planted"; from the trees that we planted in our childhood and the weekly Friday donation in the Jewish National Fund's blue box, the tree holds a special place in our hearts. When Tu Bishvat arrives and the country is awash with ceremonies, songs and slogans in praise of trees, while at the same time thousands of trees in the territories have been deliberately uprooted by that same tree-loving nation, the beautiful childhood festival of trees is turned into an ugly adult festival of hypocrisy.
"Do you remember the tree that you planted in your childhood?" was the question asked by the announcer with the pleasant voice in JNF's recent broadcasts, to the sound of chirping birds in the background. "It's now become a forest." The farmer Yassin Shamalwa also remembers the trees that his father and grandfather planted. But they're not a forest now. Now they are a pile of dead twigs. A few weeks ago, late one evening, Shamalwa was frightened by the pulsating sound of a bulldozer in his olive orchard. He rushed over to the area, but soldiers with drawn guns stopped him from getting near. He ran to the mosque in his village, Kafr Hares, near Ariel, and used the muezzin's loudspeaker to call out desperately for assistance. It didn't help. The bulldozer uprooted 30 of the trees planted by his father and grandfather.
He was given no advance notice, as laid down in the law, and nobody bothered to explain the reasons for the action to him. No one presented him with a written order, he was given no opportunity to appeal, nor did anybody offer him compensation for the state's act of vandalism on his land. "Why do you do this?" he tried asking in English, and according to Shamalwa a soldier answered, "Go to Arafat and Yossi Sarid. They'll explain to you."
The official justification, of course, is security: stones were thrown at travelers on the nearby road, and apparently they came from the olive orchard. Now, instead of the trees that could conceal stone throwers, there are piles of chopped trees that are equally able to conceal someone, and an old Palestinian farmer whose world has collapsed around him. For him the trees were much more than a possession. As the JNF says in its announcements, they are "presented with love" and cutting them down entails much more than just the loss of income. The small group of devoted activists from B'Tselem, the human rights organization, who, on Tu Bishvat brought him new olive saplings, made him a little emotional. It should be emphasized that it was B'Tselem and not the JNF that loves the forests so much.
A drive along the roads of Samaria shows a depressing picture. There are hundreds of uprooted trees, mostly olive trees, along the roadsides, the fruit of recent weeks' labor. B'Tselem's on-site researchers have counted 2,200 uprooted trees just in the area around Nablus, in addition to 2,100 that have been destroyed since the Intifada broke out. Palestinian organizations give higher numbers. Sometimes trees are dug up with their roots, sometimes only the branches are sawn off. Sometimes plots of land on both sides of the road are dug up, sometimes only one side - which is somewhat puzzling. Sometimes the farmers give up and capitulate, and sometimes, as in the case of the orchards of the village of Dir Isstia, they replant the stumps with stubbornness and devotion. Sometimes the destruction is caused by the IDF and sometimes by the settlers, as an act of retaliation. Tabeth Iyov, a farmer in the village of Nebi Salah, west of Ramallah, had his whole orchard, 146 trees, destroyed when the settlers were venting their anger, the day after the killing of Sarah Lisha from Halamish, in November. Of course, Iyov is not the only farmer to fall victim to such acts of revenge. The settlers, with their pretensions to being the greatest "lovers of the land," are not sickened by the destruction of the landscape.
"In the Land of Israel the trees cry. Soldiers of Rome raze dunam after dunam. They have no compassion for the land's covering, for the seven species." So the poet, Aharon Shabtai wrote in a poem published in last week's culture and literature supplement of Ha'aretz (in Hebrew). Shabtai laments the digging up of trees in order "to give building rights to Burger King and to Kentucky Fried Chicken" - which is another matter. But not far away, even more shockingly, Israel is mercilessly chopping down other trees, "non-Jewish" trees; and in so doing it causes not only the trees to weep, but also those who plant them: those who remember the trees planted in their childhood - trees that can no longer grow .
2. The worst script is coming true
Meron Benvenisti
Haaretz, 15 February 2001
How tempting it is to mock those who preached in favor of a crusade against Ariel Sharon: "fanatic nationalist," "blood-shedder," "yesterday's man" (Amos Oz, The Guardian, February 8), who find themselves facing the crawling of Ehud Barak (who was "ahead of [his] time" and had "the courage to compromise and make peace") and his party toward a national unity government. A few of them express fierce opposition "to the betrayal of the way of peace," but others "feel a great yearning for unity, in light of the intensification of the terror" and find solace in the agreed-upon platform of the government, according to which the "effort toward a final agreement" would continue, as well as its opposite: "advancing peace through interim agreements.". But the mockery over the sermonizing of the "Council of Leftist Sages," which evaporated in the emptiness of its words, was erased by the terrible tragedy that occurred yesterday in these parts. Now "national unity" - that tribal closing of ranks against the murderous Other - has become a necessity that no one can oppose, and any attempt to control events, even by proposing a realistic diplomatic alternative, is hopeless.
The worst script is about to take place: severe retaliatory actions will lead to acts of blood revenge whose motives are personal; these in turn will prompt even harsher collective punishment, which will ruin the remnants of authority remaining to the Palestinian Authority. Attempts to consolidate a rational approach that aspires to launch a joint effort to manage the crisis will run into internal disagreements, which will be won by those who always thrive on the rotting bed of hate and bloodletting.
The atmosphere, which enables only the increasing use of force, will lead to an extreme escalation that will create pressure for international intervention. The chances for external intervention along the lines of Bosnia or Kosovo are extremely slight, both because the world's cop is shrugging off its duties, with the United States increasingly isolating itself, and also because the intervention - which would restrain the actions of the Jewish State - would be seen as an anti-Semitic act and thus there would be hesitation to initiate it. The situation that will be created will make all the usual "solutions" - two states for two peoples, an end to the occupation, the dismantling of settlements, final status agreements, interim agreements, and others - laughable.
Reality would be exposed in all its nakedness not as a "problem" but as a "condition": a reality that was described nearly 20 years ago, earning a torrent of ridicule and the name "the theory of irreversibility." "A basic, almost primitive conflict, not an international conflict; a conflict that raises existential and meta-political questions of self-identity, denial of the identity of the opposing side, atavistic fears of physical annihilation, deep feelings of absolute justice that brooks no compromise and feelings of exclusive possessiveness; a dynamic, violent and unstable conflict - as in every binational or multi-ethnic state where the ruling group has a monopoly on the power of enforcement, the group that is ruled turns to violent civil disobedience to which the ruling group responds with violence. The confrontation escalates but it is confined to its internal, Israeli-Palestinian framework." It's not generally accepted for someone to quote himself, but perhaps these harsh words will serve as food for thought for anyone who was drawn to illusions concerning the "end of the conflict" and is now hopeless in the face of the collapse of his illusions. Out of the cycle of violence the gradual, hesitant understanding - perhaps the dream - will grow, that the only way is through a struggle to create a land of Israel/Palestine that is undivided in both physical and human terms, pluralistic and open; a land in which civilized relations, human touch, intimate coexistence and a link to a common homeland would be stronger than militant tribalism and the separation into national ghettoes. Many years may have to pass until the notion of a binational framework - federated or otherwise - will become a legitimate topic for Israeli and Palestinian political discourse. In the meantime, we can certainly expect a great deal of sermonizing regarding "separation" and "the establishment of a Palestinian state" as indispensable solutions; at least this preaching should be carried out with the humility dictated by events and not with the arrogance of know-it-alls .
Wednesday, February 7
MCC Palestine Update #12
MCC Palestine Update #12
The Israeli elections for prime minister were held this Tuesday, and the Likud party chairman, Ariel Sharon, scored a decisive victory. The Labor party is in disarray, with up to six different people vying openly and covertly for its leadership. Sharon will most likely try to forge a "national unity" government with Labor, the Sephardic ultra-orthodox party Shas, and the Askhenazi ultra-orthodox party United Torah Judaism; if that fails, he will have to constitute a narrow right-wing government. Under either scenario, the prospects for any form of peace agreement with the Palestinians in the near term look grim.
This past week we received distressing news from the Palestinian Center for Rapprochement in Beit Sahour, a longtime MCC partner. PCR had spearheaded the Mazmouriah building project, an attempt to set up a Palestinian neighborhood inside Jerusalem's municipal boundaries on land owned by families in Beit Sahour. The Israeli authorities in Jerusalem have invested practically nothing in East Jerusalem's infrastructure or in housing projects for Jerusalem's Palestinian residents, even as it pours money into settlements in East Jerusalem. The Mazmouriah project would have helped to alleviate the housing crisis for Palestinians in Jerusalem and would have broken up the future contiguity of illegal Israeli settlements.
PCR staff worked with Israeli peace activists to prepare building plans which would be technically flawless, and so could not be rejected by the municipal planning commissions on a technical basis. The Mazmouriah project passed the relevant technical committees and was awaiting final approval. However, this past week Israeli bulldozers went to work in the area, building roads which will make the project impossible to execute. For more on this devastating setback to a promising, nonviolent initiative to resist the occupation, see www.rapprochement.org.
MCC Project Update
a. Young Advocate Training: MCC is sponsoring a course through the Palestinian Center for Rapprochement in Beit Sahour which will train 20 Palestinian men and women, aged 18-25 in media, communication, and advocacy skills. The vision behind the program is to build the capacity of Rapprochement's cadre of volunteers in various forms of advocacy so that young Palestinians motivated to remain in the country have the skills to communicate the message of Palestinian dispossession to the West.
b. In the Shu'fat refugee camp in East Jerusalem MCC is working with a neighborhood committee to install a sewer system. The committee is contributing 75% of the costs of the project. As stated above, Israel has actively neglected the urban development needs of East Jerusalem.
1. Born at the third roadblock, stopped at the fourth
Amira Hass
Haaretz, 29 January 2001
Sabreen Balout was born last Wednesday, January 24, in the taxi that was rushing her mother, her father, an aunt and her grandmother to the hospital in Ramallah. She was born as they
were waiting for permission to cross from the Israel Defense Forces detachment posted on the road. This was the fourth group of IDF troops they had encountered on their way to the hospital. They would encounter yet another, when Sabreen was about ten minutes old. This detachment, at the northern entrance to Bir Zeit,demanded that all the passengers in the taxi, including Sabreen
who was still linked by her umbilical cord to her mother, to get out of it. It was a very cold and rainy day, the father, Sallah Balout,related to Ha'aretz.
Amina Moussa Balout's contractions began in the afternoon. About two months ago, the main exit from the village of Rantis onto the main road was blocked. The only way out of the village now is over an unpaved and circuitous dirt track through the fields, which, in winter, are muddy. Traveling along this route Amina and her family met two jeeps: an IDF jeep and the security jeep from one of the Jewish settlements in the area. The soldiers did not allow the taxi to pass. An argument ensued, with each party insistent. Then, because of the rain and the mud even a return to the village became impossible. After about half an hour, Balout estimates, the soldiers allowed the taxi to continue on its way.
It continued eastwards and came to another IDF roadblock near theJewish settlement of Halamish. Soldiers aimed their rifles at the taxi and it stopped. Balout and the driver got out; the taxi was delayed there for about another 20 minutes, while Amina Balout was sighing and screaming. After driving a few minutes, they came upon a long line of cars waiting near the village of Um Safa. The taxi driver drove past it until he came to a military jeep. The
soldiers again aimed their rifles at the car and ordered everyone out. The passengers in the taxi tried to explain that there was a woman in the vehicle who was about to give birth, but a
soldier said he had to get authorization from the officer to allow the car to pass. While the soldier was away speaking with the officer, Amina cried out, "The baby is coming, the baby is coming," and by the time he had returned, Amina had given birth to her daughter.Her mother and her sister-in-law wrapped the baby in a blanket and gave her to her mother to hold against her body.
Balout estimates that they were delayed at this roadblock for about 20 minutes before the officer came along, saw the new-born infant and immediately allowed them to continue on their way. About 200 meters down the road they encountered another military Jeep; once more a soldier leveled his gun at the vehicle and demanded to know who had allowed them to drive on. The officer who had permitted their passage at the previous roadblock saw what was happening, and ran quickly to order the soldier to let them pass. This took about five minutes.They kept on in the direction of Bir Zeit, where again they came upon a long line of delayed cars. The taxi passed them, until it was stopped by four soldiers.
"We opened the window and told them that we had with us a woman who had just given birth," relates the father. "They ordered us to wait, walked around the car, opened the door, and looked
inside and saw there was a woman with an infant." Balout got the impression that they laughed, and then ordered all the passengers to get out. Amina's mother slammed the door angrily. They tried to open it. The mother continued to scream and demanded that they be allowed to pass. "But they insisted that we had to get out. And we got out - what could we do?" Amina got out of the car, holding the baby, whose umbilical cord was not yet cut, and collapsed on the ground because she was so weak. As the soldiers stood by, the father gained the impression that they were still laughing at the scene. Then another soldier arrived, shouted at his colleagues and
told them to stop, let them get in and drive on. One of Amina's house slippers fell off her foot and was left there on the ground.
At around 8:30 P.M. Amina and her daughter arrived at the hospital in Ramallah; they had left Rantis at 5:00 P.M. Ordinarily, the trip along this route would take about 40 or 50 minutes. The name Sabreen is derived from the three-letter Arabic root transliterated as S-B-R, meaning patience.
A senior military source told Ha'aretz in response that at the time of these events there had been a shooting incident on the route to Atarot. Someone in a Palestinian vehicle had opened fire and
injured someone in an Israeli vehicle, and the IDF was taking measures "in an attempt to catch the terrorists." The source said he had no knowledge of the delay caused to the taxi at the exit
from Rantis and at Halamish. However, he was aware that, at the roadblocks near Atarot and Bir Zeit, the soldiers acted properly, in accordance with the procedures and instructions governing
humanitarian cases. According to the source, when the passengers encountered the roadblock near Um Safa, "right where the attack was," they told the responsible military commander that there was a child in the car. "Within three or four minutes the vehicle continued on its way to the Bir Zeit area, where there was a long line of waiting cars because of the terror attack. The detachment saw a taxi that drove right past all the other cars, and the driver said there was a woman in the car who was about to give birth.
The soldier saw a pregnant woman with two other women next to her. The two women began to curse the soldier, who shut the door and allowed them to continue immediately." Crippling the territories Despite the promises, the encirclement of most of the cities and villages of the West Bank has not been lifted. Inhabitants are forced to drive circuitously, go on foot, change taxis, clamber up hilly paths and among olive groves and sometimes try to go back the way they came because of a sudden roadblock at which stretches a kilometer-long line of cars, or a new roadblock. On the ground, what remains of the Intifada is its suppression. The limitation on travel is the most conspicuously felt means, which affects every home and individual and achieves its aim: the paralysis of normal life. Therefore, on the ground, the Intifada now is above all a daily attempt to cope with the internal closure, the roadblocks and the encirclement.
The Israeli elections for prime minister were held this Tuesday, and the Likud party chairman, Ariel Sharon, scored a decisive victory. The Labor party is in disarray, with up to six different people vying openly and covertly for its leadership. Sharon will most likely try to forge a "national unity" government with Labor, the Sephardic ultra-orthodox party Shas, and the Askhenazi ultra-orthodox party United Torah Judaism; if that fails, he will have to constitute a narrow right-wing government. Under either scenario, the prospects for any form of peace agreement with the Palestinians in the near term look grim.
This past week we received distressing news from the Palestinian Center for Rapprochement in Beit Sahour, a longtime MCC partner. PCR had spearheaded the Mazmouriah building project, an attempt to set up a Palestinian neighborhood inside Jerusalem's municipal boundaries on land owned by families in Beit Sahour. The Israeli authorities in Jerusalem have invested practically nothing in East Jerusalem's infrastructure or in housing projects for Jerusalem's Palestinian residents, even as it pours money into settlements in East Jerusalem. The Mazmouriah project would have helped to alleviate the housing crisis for Palestinians in Jerusalem and would have broken up the future contiguity of illegal Israeli settlements.
PCR staff worked with Israeli peace activists to prepare building plans which would be technically flawless, and so could not be rejected by the municipal planning commissions on a technical basis. The Mazmouriah project passed the relevant technical committees and was awaiting final approval. However, this past week Israeli bulldozers went to work in the area, building roads which will make the project impossible to execute. For more on this devastating setback to a promising, nonviolent initiative to resist the occupation, see www.rapprochement.org.
MCC Project Update
a. Young Advocate Training: MCC is sponsoring a course through the Palestinian Center for Rapprochement in Beit Sahour which will train 20 Palestinian men and women, aged 18-25 in media, communication, and advocacy skills. The vision behind the program is to build the capacity of Rapprochement's cadre of volunteers in various forms of advocacy so that young Palestinians motivated to remain in the country have the skills to communicate the message of Palestinian dispossession to the West.
b. In the Shu'fat refugee camp in East Jerusalem MCC is working with a neighborhood committee to install a sewer system. The committee is contributing 75% of the costs of the project. As stated above, Israel has actively neglected the urban development needs of East Jerusalem.
1. Born at the third roadblock, stopped at the fourth
Amira Hass
Haaretz, 29 January 2001
Sabreen Balout was born last Wednesday, January 24, in the taxi that was rushing her mother, her father, an aunt and her grandmother to the hospital in Ramallah. She was born as they
were waiting for permission to cross from the Israel Defense Forces detachment posted on the road. This was the fourth group of IDF troops they had encountered on their way to the hospital. They would encounter yet another, when Sabreen was about ten minutes old. This detachment, at the northern entrance to Bir Zeit,demanded that all the passengers in the taxi, including Sabreen
who was still linked by her umbilical cord to her mother, to get out of it. It was a very cold and rainy day, the father, Sallah Balout,related to Ha'aretz.
Amina Moussa Balout's contractions began in the afternoon. About two months ago, the main exit from the village of Rantis onto the main road was blocked. The only way out of the village now is over an unpaved and circuitous dirt track through the fields, which, in winter, are muddy. Traveling along this route Amina and her family met two jeeps: an IDF jeep and the security jeep from one of the Jewish settlements in the area. The soldiers did not allow the taxi to pass. An argument ensued, with each party insistent. Then, because of the rain and the mud even a return to the village became impossible. After about half an hour, Balout estimates, the soldiers allowed the taxi to continue on its way.
It continued eastwards and came to another IDF roadblock near theJewish settlement of Halamish. Soldiers aimed their rifles at the taxi and it stopped. Balout and the driver got out; the taxi was delayed there for about another 20 minutes, while Amina Balout was sighing and screaming. After driving a few minutes, they came upon a long line of cars waiting near the village of Um Safa. The taxi driver drove past it until he came to a military jeep. The
soldiers again aimed their rifles at the car and ordered everyone out. The passengers in the taxi tried to explain that there was a woman in the vehicle who was about to give birth, but a
soldier said he had to get authorization from the officer to allow the car to pass. While the soldier was away speaking with the officer, Amina cried out, "The baby is coming, the baby is coming," and by the time he had returned, Amina had given birth to her daughter.Her mother and her sister-in-law wrapped the baby in a blanket and gave her to her mother to hold against her body.
Balout estimates that they were delayed at this roadblock for about 20 minutes before the officer came along, saw the new-born infant and immediately allowed them to continue on their way. About 200 meters down the road they encountered another military Jeep; once more a soldier leveled his gun at the vehicle and demanded to know who had allowed them to drive on. The officer who had permitted their passage at the previous roadblock saw what was happening, and ran quickly to order the soldier to let them pass. This took about five minutes.They kept on in the direction of Bir Zeit, where again they came upon a long line of delayed cars. The taxi passed them, until it was stopped by four soldiers.
"We opened the window and told them that we had with us a woman who had just given birth," relates the father. "They ordered us to wait, walked around the car, opened the door, and looked
inside and saw there was a woman with an infant." Balout got the impression that they laughed, and then ordered all the passengers to get out. Amina's mother slammed the door angrily. They tried to open it. The mother continued to scream and demanded that they be allowed to pass. "But they insisted that we had to get out. And we got out - what could we do?" Amina got out of the car, holding the baby, whose umbilical cord was not yet cut, and collapsed on the ground because she was so weak. As the soldiers stood by, the father gained the impression that they were still laughing at the scene. Then another soldier arrived, shouted at his colleagues and
told them to stop, let them get in and drive on. One of Amina's house slippers fell off her foot and was left there on the ground.
At around 8:30 P.M. Amina and her daughter arrived at the hospital in Ramallah; they had left Rantis at 5:00 P.M. Ordinarily, the trip along this route would take about 40 or 50 minutes. The name Sabreen is derived from the three-letter Arabic root transliterated as S-B-R, meaning patience.
A senior military source told Ha'aretz in response that at the time of these events there had been a shooting incident on the route to Atarot. Someone in a Palestinian vehicle had opened fire and
injured someone in an Israeli vehicle, and the IDF was taking measures "in an attempt to catch the terrorists." The source said he had no knowledge of the delay caused to the taxi at the exit
from Rantis and at Halamish. However, he was aware that, at the roadblocks near Atarot and Bir Zeit, the soldiers acted properly, in accordance with the procedures and instructions governing
humanitarian cases. According to the source, when the passengers encountered the roadblock near Um Safa, "right where the attack was," they told the responsible military commander that there was a child in the car. "Within three or four minutes the vehicle continued on its way to the Bir Zeit area, where there was a long line of waiting cars because of the terror attack. The detachment saw a taxi that drove right past all the other cars, and the driver said there was a woman in the car who was about to give birth.
The soldier saw a pregnant woman with two other women next to her. The two women began to curse the soldier, who shut the door and allowed them to continue immediately." Crippling the territories Despite the promises, the encirclement of most of the cities and villages of the West Bank has not been lifted. Inhabitants are forced to drive circuitously, go on foot, change taxis, clamber up hilly paths and among olive groves and sometimes try to go back the way they came because of a sudden roadblock at which stretches a kilometer-long line of cars, or a new roadblock. On the ground, what remains of the Intifada is its suppression. The limitation on travel is the most conspicuously felt means, which affects every home and individual and achieves its aim: the paralysis of normal life. Therefore, on the ground, the Intifada now is above all a daily attempt to cope with the internal closure, the roadblocks and the encirclement.
Wednesday, January 24
MCC Palestine Update #11
MCC Palestine Update #11
Less than two weeks remain until the new Israeli prime ministerial elections are held on Feb. 6. Likud chairman Ariel Sharon continues to hold a commanding lead over current Prime Minister Ehud Barak; Labor party patriarch Shimon Peres, meanwhile, lurks behind Barak, ready to step into the race if Barak withdraws.
Israeli and Palestinian negotiators have been meeting in Taba Egypt in marathon talks. These talks were suspended after two Israeli restaurateurs were killed while shopping in the West Bank city of Tul Karem. Optimism that the negotiations might produce an accord--final or interim--is low. Ghassan al-Khatib of the Jerusalem Media and Communications Center argues that Barak has an interest in continue negotiations so that he can convince the Israeli peace camp that he is making all efforts to reach an accord, even if he is not prepared to make the needed concessions on the core issues of Jerusalem, settlements, water resources, and refugees;the Palestinians, meanwhile, are interested in continued negotiations so that they will not be blamed if and when Sharon is elected Prime Minister.
While it is easy to get caught up in the details of electioneering, it is more important to keep the broader context of occupation and its effects firmly in mind when considering current and future
Palestinian/Israeli negotiations. The January 2001 issue of the Peace Office Newsletter seeks to provide such a broader context, and is devoted to the on-going Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Articles by MCC workers and partners focus on the failure of the Oslo process, the fate of Palestinian refugees, settlement expansion, the closure/siege on the occupied territories, and the Palestinian Christian presence and witness. The newsletter also includes a listing of helpful books and websites and could be used as a resource in Sunday School classes, discussion groups, and high school and college classes. Copies of the Peace Office Newsletter are available for a suggested donation of US $1/copy from Esther O'Hara in the MCC Peace Office in Akron, Pa., USA. Contact Esther at MCC, P.O. Box 500, 21 S. 12th St., Akron, PA 17501, USA; tel. 717-859-1151; e-mail: geo@mail.mcc.org.
In project news, MCC has agreed to work with the Union of Agricultural Work Committees in the Gaza Strip to build 20 rain water collection ponds in the south of the Gaza Strip, which suffers from high water salinity. The ponds will increase the sweet water supply to farmers, thus reducing dependency on the Israeli water carrier Mekorot, reducing production costs, and allowing greater crop variation.
Appended below is a statement from the Palestinian negotiating team which provides a Palestinian analysis of the role of U.S. "mediation" in the Palestinian/Israeli peace process under the Clinton administration.
1. MEMORANDUM: Lessons learned concerning US involvement in the Palestinian-Israeli peace process over the last seven years
Palestinian Negotiating Team
21 January 2001
No third party has been as involved and influential in the Palestinian-Israeli peace process over the last seven years as the United States and, in particular, its Special Middle East Coordinator, Dennis Ross. In view of the United States inability to facilitate the realization by Palestinians and Israelis of a just and lasting peace in accordance with Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338 and other sources of international law, it seems prudent, at the close of the Clinton Administration, to assess US involvement and to identify some of the reasons the United States involvement has not yielded better results.
Process over Substance
Under US supervision, the Palestinian-Israeli peace process has become a goal in and of itself. A false sense of normalcy has been created because of the on-going process of negotiations. The lack of visible resistance to Israeli occupation from the Palestinian side, except for temporary flare-ups, and Israel’s ability to continue negotiations while continuing to build settlements in occupied Palestinian Territory has created the false impression that the process of achieving peace could substitute for peace itself. Thus, the difficult substantial issues at the core of the conflict, including acceptance that Israels occupation of Arab territory it conquered in the 1967 Israeli-Arab War is illegal, have been constantly deflected in order to maintain talks without requiring Israel to face up to its obligations. In fact, the United States advocacy of constructive ambiguity has had disastrous consequences for the peace process. Both parties to the conflict have mistakenly assumed at different times that either the Israelis had accepted to end the occupation or that the Palestinians had agreed to forego some of their fundamental rights as a result of vaguely worded agreements. Whereas such ambiguity made it possible for both sides to sign agreements that they could interpret in diametrically opposed manners to their domestic constituencies, the facts on the ground of implementing opposing interpretations have led to very little implementation at all.
This lack of implementation, combined with the ever-increasing number of Palestinian-Israeli agreements brokered by the United States, has caused Palestinians to become increasingly wary of US involvement in a process that has brought some normalcy to Israel but none to Palestinians. The resulting lack of faith in the peace process and the consequent distrust of US promotion of process over substance has made securing a just peace all that more difficult. Normalization Before an End to the Occupation of Arab Lands US policy over the last seven years appears predicated on the need to help Israel normalize its relations with the Arab and Muslim world at large, as well as with many other nations around the world sympathetic to the plight of Palestinians dispossessed by Israeli conquest. The peace process was used as an excuse to encourage states that had foregone normal relations with Israel to begin the process of normalization, with the argument that peace was just around the corner.
Had the United States promoted the implementation of already signed agreements between Israelis and Palestinians with the same zeal with which it promoted new Israeli arrangements with Arab and other states, it may have succeeded in actually promoting normalization.
Unfortunately, the US emphasis on process over substance has led the domestic constituencies of many governments in the region to conclude that the peace process was only a mirage designed to trick their governments into prematurely establishing economic ties that would help Israel break out of its regional isolation. This has had the added repercussion of promoting not only anti-Israeli sentiment in countries that have established economic ties with Israel, but has also promoted anti-American sentiment in all countries of the region, as demonstrated by the grass-roots popular boycott of American products in many states.
US negotiators in recent years never appeared to recognize that normalcy was a state that existed between two free and equal peoples. As long as the occupation of Arab lands, including the Palestinian Territories, continues, there can never be true normalization between Israel and its neighbors.
Adoption of Israeli Perspective v. Acting as an Honest Broker
The two bases for US involvement in the Palestinian-Israeli peace process have been 1) the physical fact that the United States is the primary power in the Middle East and 2) that the United States has promoted itself to the parties in the region as an honest broker wishing to promote Israel’s security as well as Palestinian national aspirations.
Unfortunately, over the last seven years in particular, the US has become increasingly identified with Israeli ideological assumptions. Dennis Ross, for example, and some other members of his negotiating team, have acknowledged having an emotional commitment to Israel and have said they cannot distinguish between their personal and professional involvement with it. This has had a number of legal ramifications that have affected the peace process negatively: The United States began the peace process based on the goal of implementing UN Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338. These Resolutions, as repeatedly interpreted by the international community, simply mean that Israel must withdraw from the Arab territories it occupied in 1967 if it wants to have peaceful relations with its neighbors. After seven years of negotiations, the US negotiating team now effectively advocates the position that the West Bank and Gaza are Israeli territories, or at best disputed territories, for which the Palestinians must bargain. Settlements, for example, opposed by Presidents Carter, Reagan, and Bush, have been tacitly endorsed by recent US policy in the region.
Palestinian concessions to Israel have been made up front, as demanded by Israel and the United States, for talks to take place between the two sides. However, those concessions were always viewed by Israel as the starting point for negotiating further concessions. This view appears to have been adopted by the United States of late. US negotiators have implicitly blamed the Palestinians for not making the same extent of concessions that Israel was offering. Thus, whereas Palestinians gave up their rights to all but 22% of historic Palestine as early as 1988, they are chastised by the US negotiators for wanting all of the Occupied Territories whereas Israelis have been lauded for offering to dismantle only 20% of illegal settlements. Israel’s desire to continue occupying significant areas of Palestinian territory is seen as a reasonable need by the US negotiating position - morally and legally equating the illegal settlement of Palestinian territory with the Palestinian right to reclaim that same territory.
US negotiators have accepted the Israeli world-view concerning the primacy of Israel’s security needs while ignoring the long-term development of the Occupied Palestinian Territories and the improvement of the Palestinian quality of life. The result has been that while Israel’s security, including the security of its occupation forces, have been the focus of each agreement, the quality of life of Palestinians has continued to decline. The dichotomy between the comfort of Israelis, including those occupying Palestinian land in settlements with green lawns and swimming pools, and the poverty and misery of Palestinians, has only further inflamed an already volatile situation.
Public support for one side over the other can also have negative unintended consequences. US negotiators public criticism of the Palestinian side at last summers Camp David talks were intended to provide domestic political support for the Israeli prime minister. Instead, it allowed right wing extremists in Israel opposed to peace all together to challenge the Israeli prime minister for having offered too many concessions. US inability to see past Israel’s own narrow perceptions of the conflict have further delayed concluding a just and lasting peace.
US/Israeli Domestic Political Concerns Overrode the Goal of a Lasting Peace
Palestinians obviously have every interest in concluding a comprehensive, just and lasting peace with Israelis as soon as possible. The original Oslo Accords had mandated that the peace talks be concluded three years ago with a Palestinian state and an Israeli state living in freedom, security, and equality side by side. Yet, as Israel attempted to colonize as much of the West Bank and Gaza as possible before beginning final status talks, the Palestinians were compelled to focus on Interim issues in negotiations, rather than addressing the key permanent status issues.
Once mandated by domestic political considerations in Israel and the United States, Palestinians have been placed under tremendous, and sometimes unconscionable, pressure to sign weak and vague agreements that could be used by political leaders to show progress to their constituencies. Rather than place a matter of such great existential importance to both Palestinians and Israelis above the fray of domestic politics, the timetable for reaching agreements has been based on immediate domestic concerns even when the necessary background work on substantive issues has not been done. A comprehensive peace agreement between Palestinians and Israelis must not only be considered a valuable photo opportunity, but a matter of great strategic importance for all the states of the region as well as for those states that believe they have interests in the Middle East. It has been obvious, especially over the course of the last year, that the importance of a just and lasting peace has been overshadowed by the need for yet another temporary or interim agreement that would provide only short-term political gain to some of those involved - at the risk of creating tremendous problems for the long-term stability of the area.
Conclusion
US policy has not been static over the last decades. It was the United States that helped force Israeli, British, and French occupation troops from Egypt in 1956. President Jimmy Carter has strongly advocated Palestinian rights, even during the Camp David talks between Egypt and Israel, and repeatedly emphasized the illegality of Israel’s settlement policy. President George Bush used the position of the United States as a global leader to force Israel to sit with Palestinians in negotiations for the first time and also expended tremendous political capital to keep US aid to Israel from being used to promote settlement building. There is much the United States can contribute to encouraging justice, peace, and stability in the Middle East, but only if it can learn from the mistakes and failures of the last seven years. There remains much at stake, and for every day that the Israeli occupation continues and settlements continue to expand, peace becomes that much harder to achieve.
Less than two weeks remain until the new Israeli prime ministerial elections are held on Feb. 6. Likud chairman Ariel Sharon continues to hold a commanding lead over current Prime Minister Ehud Barak; Labor party patriarch Shimon Peres, meanwhile, lurks behind Barak, ready to step into the race if Barak withdraws.
Israeli and Palestinian negotiators have been meeting in Taba Egypt in marathon talks. These talks were suspended after two Israeli restaurateurs were killed while shopping in the West Bank city of Tul Karem. Optimism that the negotiations might produce an accord--final or interim--is low. Ghassan al-Khatib of the Jerusalem Media and Communications Center argues that Barak has an interest in continue negotiations so that he can convince the Israeli peace camp that he is making all efforts to reach an accord, even if he is not prepared to make the needed concessions on the core issues of Jerusalem, settlements, water resources, and refugees;the Palestinians, meanwhile, are interested in continued negotiations so that they will not be blamed if and when Sharon is elected Prime Minister.
While it is easy to get caught up in the details of electioneering, it is more important to keep the broader context of occupation and its effects firmly in mind when considering current and future
Palestinian/Israeli negotiations. The January 2001 issue of the Peace Office Newsletter seeks to provide such a broader context, and is devoted to the on-going Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Articles by MCC workers and partners focus on the failure of the Oslo process, the fate of Palestinian refugees, settlement expansion, the closure/siege on the occupied territories, and the Palestinian Christian presence and witness. The newsletter also includes a listing of helpful books and websites and could be used as a resource in Sunday School classes, discussion groups, and high school and college classes. Copies of the Peace Office Newsletter are available for a suggested donation of US $1/copy from Esther O'Hara in the MCC Peace Office in Akron, Pa., USA. Contact Esther at MCC, P.O. Box 500, 21 S. 12th St., Akron, PA 17501, USA; tel. 717-859-1151; e-mail: geo@mail.mcc.org.
In project news, MCC has agreed to work with the Union of Agricultural Work Committees in the Gaza Strip to build 20 rain water collection ponds in the south of the Gaza Strip, which suffers from high water salinity. The ponds will increase the sweet water supply to farmers, thus reducing dependency on the Israeli water carrier Mekorot, reducing production costs, and allowing greater crop variation.
Appended below is a statement from the Palestinian negotiating team which provides a Palestinian analysis of the role of U.S. "mediation" in the Palestinian/Israeli peace process under the Clinton administration.
1. MEMORANDUM: Lessons learned concerning US involvement in the Palestinian-Israeli peace process over the last seven years
Palestinian Negotiating Team
21 January 2001
No third party has been as involved and influential in the Palestinian-Israeli peace process over the last seven years as the United States and, in particular, its Special Middle East Coordinator, Dennis Ross. In view of the United States inability to facilitate the realization by Palestinians and Israelis of a just and lasting peace in accordance with Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338 and other sources of international law, it seems prudent, at the close of the Clinton Administration, to assess US involvement and to identify some of the reasons the United States involvement has not yielded better results.
Process over Substance
Under US supervision, the Palestinian-Israeli peace process has become a goal in and of itself. A false sense of normalcy has been created because of the on-going process of negotiations. The lack of visible resistance to Israeli occupation from the Palestinian side, except for temporary flare-ups, and Israel’s ability to continue negotiations while continuing to build settlements in occupied Palestinian Territory has created the false impression that the process of achieving peace could substitute for peace itself. Thus, the difficult substantial issues at the core of the conflict, including acceptance that Israels occupation of Arab territory it conquered in the 1967 Israeli-Arab War is illegal, have been constantly deflected in order to maintain talks without requiring Israel to face up to its obligations. In fact, the United States advocacy of constructive ambiguity has had disastrous consequences for the peace process. Both parties to the conflict have mistakenly assumed at different times that either the Israelis had accepted to end the occupation or that the Palestinians had agreed to forego some of their fundamental rights as a result of vaguely worded agreements. Whereas such ambiguity made it possible for both sides to sign agreements that they could interpret in diametrically opposed manners to their domestic constituencies, the facts on the ground of implementing opposing interpretations have led to very little implementation at all.
This lack of implementation, combined with the ever-increasing number of Palestinian-Israeli agreements brokered by the United States, has caused Palestinians to become increasingly wary of US involvement in a process that has brought some normalcy to Israel but none to Palestinians. The resulting lack of faith in the peace process and the consequent distrust of US promotion of process over substance has made securing a just peace all that more difficult. Normalization Before an End to the Occupation of Arab Lands US policy over the last seven years appears predicated on the need to help Israel normalize its relations with the Arab and Muslim world at large, as well as with many other nations around the world sympathetic to the plight of Palestinians dispossessed by Israeli conquest. The peace process was used as an excuse to encourage states that had foregone normal relations with Israel to begin the process of normalization, with the argument that peace was just around the corner.
Had the United States promoted the implementation of already signed agreements between Israelis and Palestinians with the same zeal with which it promoted new Israeli arrangements with Arab and other states, it may have succeeded in actually promoting normalization.
Unfortunately, the US emphasis on process over substance has led the domestic constituencies of many governments in the region to conclude that the peace process was only a mirage designed to trick their governments into prematurely establishing economic ties that would help Israel break out of its regional isolation. This has had the added repercussion of promoting not only anti-Israeli sentiment in countries that have established economic ties with Israel, but has also promoted anti-American sentiment in all countries of the region, as demonstrated by the grass-roots popular boycott of American products in many states.
US negotiators in recent years never appeared to recognize that normalcy was a state that existed between two free and equal peoples. As long as the occupation of Arab lands, including the Palestinian Territories, continues, there can never be true normalization between Israel and its neighbors.
Adoption of Israeli Perspective v. Acting as an Honest Broker
The two bases for US involvement in the Palestinian-Israeli peace process have been 1) the physical fact that the United States is the primary power in the Middle East and 2) that the United States has promoted itself to the parties in the region as an honest broker wishing to promote Israel’s security as well as Palestinian national aspirations.
Unfortunately, over the last seven years in particular, the US has become increasingly identified with Israeli ideological assumptions. Dennis Ross, for example, and some other members of his negotiating team, have acknowledged having an emotional commitment to Israel and have said they cannot distinguish between their personal and professional involvement with it. This has had a number of legal ramifications that have affected the peace process negatively: The United States began the peace process based on the goal of implementing UN Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338. These Resolutions, as repeatedly interpreted by the international community, simply mean that Israel must withdraw from the Arab territories it occupied in 1967 if it wants to have peaceful relations with its neighbors. After seven years of negotiations, the US negotiating team now effectively advocates the position that the West Bank and Gaza are Israeli territories, or at best disputed territories, for which the Palestinians must bargain. Settlements, for example, opposed by Presidents Carter, Reagan, and Bush, have been tacitly endorsed by recent US policy in the region.
Palestinian concessions to Israel have been made up front, as demanded by Israel and the United States, for talks to take place between the two sides. However, those concessions were always viewed by Israel as the starting point for negotiating further concessions. This view appears to have been adopted by the United States of late. US negotiators have implicitly blamed the Palestinians for not making the same extent of concessions that Israel was offering. Thus, whereas Palestinians gave up their rights to all but 22% of historic Palestine as early as 1988, they are chastised by the US negotiators for wanting all of the Occupied Territories whereas Israelis have been lauded for offering to dismantle only 20% of illegal settlements. Israel’s desire to continue occupying significant areas of Palestinian territory is seen as a reasonable need by the US negotiating position - morally and legally equating the illegal settlement of Palestinian territory with the Palestinian right to reclaim that same territory.
US negotiators have accepted the Israeli world-view concerning the primacy of Israel’s security needs while ignoring the long-term development of the Occupied Palestinian Territories and the improvement of the Palestinian quality of life. The result has been that while Israel’s security, including the security of its occupation forces, have been the focus of each agreement, the quality of life of Palestinians has continued to decline. The dichotomy between the comfort of Israelis, including those occupying Palestinian land in settlements with green lawns and swimming pools, and the poverty and misery of Palestinians, has only further inflamed an already volatile situation.
Public support for one side over the other can also have negative unintended consequences. US negotiators public criticism of the Palestinian side at last summers Camp David talks were intended to provide domestic political support for the Israeli prime minister. Instead, it allowed right wing extremists in Israel opposed to peace all together to challenge the Israeli prime minister for having offered too many concessions. US inability to see past Israel’s own narrow perceptions of the conflict have further delayed concluding a just and lasting peace.
US/Israeli Domestic Political Concerns Overrode the Goal of a Lasting Peace
Palestinians obviously have every interest in concluding a comprehensive, just and lasting peace with Israelis as soon as possible. The original Oslo Accords had mandated that the peace talks be concluded three years ago with a Palestinian state and an Israeli state living in freedom, security, and equality side by side. Yet, as Israel attempted to colonize as much of the West Bank and Gaza as possible before beginning final status talks, the Palestinians were compelled to focus on Interim issues in negotiations, rather than addressing the key permanent status issues.
Once mandated by domestic political considerations in Israel and the United States, Palestinians have been placed under tremendous, and sometimes unconscionable, pressure to sign weak and vague agreements that could be used by political leaders to show progress to their constituencies. Rather than place a matter of such great existential importance to both Palestinians and Israelis above the fray of domestic politics, the timetable for reaching agreements has been based on immediate domestic concerns even when the necessary background work on substantive issues has not been done. A comprehensive peace agreement between Palestinians and Israelis must not only be considered a valuable photo opportunity, but a matter of great strategic importance for all the states of the region as well as for those states that believe they have interests in the Middle East. It has been obvious, especially over the course of the last year, that the importance of a just and lasting peace has been overshadowed by the need for yet another temporary or interim agreement that would provide only short-term political gain to some of those involved - at the risk of creating tremendous problems for the long-term stability of the area.
Conclusion
US policy has not been static over the last decades. It was the United States that helped force Israeli, British, and French occupation troops from Egypt in 1956. President Jimmy Carter has strongly advocated Palestinian rights, even during the Camp David talks between Egypt and Israel, and repeatedly emphasized the illegality of Israel’s settlement policy. President George Bush used the position of the United States as a global leader to force Israel to sit with Palestinians in negotiations for the first time and also expended tremendous political capital to keep US aid to Israel from being used to promote settlement building. There is much the United States can contribute to encouraging justice, peace, and stability in the Middle East, but only if it can learn from the mistakes and failures of the last seven years. There remains much at stake, and for every day that the Israeli occupation continues and settlements continue to expand, peace becomes that much harder to achieve.
Saturday, January 20
MCC Palestine Update #10
MCC Palestine Update #10
The Israeli election campaign between Ehud Barak (or maybe Shimon Peres) and Ariel Sharon is into full swing, with both candidates trying hard to prove to the Israeli Jewish electorate that he will be "tougher" than the other. The election choice, as World Vision Jerusalem director Tom Getman wrote recently, is between the Assassin of al-Aqsa and the Butcher of Beirut--not an appetizing selection. Little hope is expressed on either the Israeli or the Palestinian sides that any form of agreement--comprehensive or otherwise--might be reached during the run-up to elections on February 6.
Meanwhile, the Israeli siege on the occupied territories continues in full strength. The Gaza airport and the Rafah crossing point into Egypt were briefly re-opened, but were closed again in revenge for the Palestinian killing of an Israeli settler from one of the Gush Katif settlements in the Gaza Strip; settlers from Gush Katif also extracted their own revenge, setting fire to farms, greenhouses, and homes of Palestinians living in the Mawasi region surrounded by the Gush Katif settlements. The network of barricades, checkpoints, and economic and travel restrictions remains fully in place in the West Bank.
This update contains three items: first, a brief update of MCC's recent activities; second, an open letter from Dr. Mona al-Farra of the Union of Health Work Committees in Gaza; third, a fiery, prophetic piece by Israel Shamir, a writer for the largest Russian- language paper inside Israel--like many prophets, his language is harsh and painful.
1. MCC Update
Because new Israeli travel restrictions inside the Gaza Strip prevent some people from reaching medical establishments, MCC is partnering with Ard al-Insan (Earth of the People) to sponsor medical days in isolated communities.
MCC has approved renovations in three kindergartens in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. During this past fiscal year, MCC has helped to renovate the bathrooms and water systems of over 15 grassroots kindergartens.
2. Best wishes from Gaza
Dr. Mona El - Farra
Union of Health Work Committees - Gaza
I woke up this morning to hear the shocking news of my mother's house demolition. The Israeli Bulldozers demolished the water well adjacent to the house, as well as tens of houses in the area.
They also uprooted vast areas of bountiful agricultural land, that includes orange, olive and guava groves. Many families in the area are homeless, with the Red Cross just recently supplying them with tents.
I cannot explain to you how bad I feel; all my childhood memories, our Family
(had) proud moments of when water was pumped from that well for the first time are damaged also by this act. I still remember my late father's rare photos, the minute I drank that water out of his hands .I still remember the joy of the relatives, friends and neighbors coming to celebrate this moment with us.
The olive, orange and Guava trees, and many other trees do not carry symbolic value only, but also they have great economic value. They are the lifelines for many families in the area. To
These people, agriculture is their only income.
The Israelis aim to decimate our already annihilated economy, touproot us, to destroy our ulture and to deny our very existence on this land for thousands of years.
It is of worth to tell you that the Israeli army did not give anywarning to us, or to the rest of the families, prior to the house demolitions. The houses were demolished with furniture inside.
As you know my mother lives in that house, but recently I invited her to live temporally with me to be able to take care of her during this difficult time.
My mother feels so bad about what happened. Our thoughts are with our neighbors who are very poor and have no alternative homes.
Beside all what I mentioned, these demolitions are huge blow to the environment. Some of the trees, especially what we call "Jummaiz" trees, are very rare species.
What is happening is a major violation of human rights, economy environment and peace.
I feel angry, helpless, devastated and abandoned. The sad fact is that despite all these crimes against humanity, most Israelis do not care. They know that they will, once again go unpunished by the international community. The support for the Palestinians is extremely fragile. The world is always willing to blame the victim, the Palestinians. However, I will not lose faith. During these difficult moments, I remember a very touching poem, written by the most gifted Palestinian poet, Mahmoud Darwish,
I came back from the dead,
To live
I represent an uncompromising wound,
The brutality of my executor has taught me,
To bite the bullet,
And carry on,
And sing,
I will sing,
I will resist,
I will resist.
I can assure you, that one day, we will replant these trees, rebuild our houses and water will flow again, even stronger than before,hopefully washing away the horrific memories of decades long Israeli aggression.
We may be weak, but justice is on our side and one-day it will prevail All my love,
Dr. Mona El - Farra
Union of Health Work Committees - Gaza
3. Acid Test Failed
Israel Shamir
6 January 2001
This article (offered here in English translation) appeared in the Russian Israeli weekly RI one month ago, and was reprinted since then by numerous newspapers and Internet publications in Russia and in Russian Israel. It is still a subject for a lively debate in the local Russian community as well as in Russia. The author, Israel Shamir, is one of best-known and most respected Russian Israeli writers and journalists. He wrote for Haaretz, BBC, Pravda and translated Agnon, Joyce and Homer into Russian. He lives in Tel Aviv and writes a weekly column in the Vesti, the biggest Russian-language paper in Israel.
Among the colourful revellers of Allenby street, in crowded restaurants of merry-making Tel Aviv nights, a vision came to me, a vision of an angel in battle-dress, chalking up on a wall three words, Mene, Tekel ufarsin. My Angel-English on-line dictionary prompts a translation: you were tested and you failed the test.
These are the darkest days for the people of Israel. They are dark, as the lamentations and protests by us and our fathers turned out to be as genuine as a three-dollar bill. In 1968, a young Jewish Russian kid, I wrote on the walls of my native Russian city, 'Hands off Czechoslovakia'. The beautiful deep voice of a Jewish Russian poet Alexander Galitch intoned: Citizens, our motherland is in danger, our tanks are on foreign soil! Some Russian Jews demonstrated on the Red Square against the invasion, and were beaten up by the police. We protested against the presence of the Russian tanks in Budapest, Prague and Kabul as Russian citizens who value honour above the ill-understood loyalty, humankind above blood ties. In the same time, Jewish American kids demonstrated against their country's intervention in Vietnam, while Jewish boys and girls in Europe fought against racism. Years passed by, and now our Jewish tanks are on the foreign soil.
Our Jewish army murders civilians, demolishes houses, starves millions and imposes the siege on the Palestinian villages. Our crimes exceeded the Russian crimes committed in Chechnya and Afghanistan, the American crimes in Vietnam and Serb crimes in Bosnia. Surely, the Israeli intellectuals demonstrate en masse on our equivalent of Pennsylvania Avenue or Trafalgar Square, American Jews raise their voice against the America-armed killers of Palestinians, Russian Jews speak up for the human rights of the enslaved Gentiles of the Holy Land? No fear, our literati exalt the courage of our Jewish soldiers, venerate the steady hand of our Jewish snipers and glorify the immense humanity of the Jewish folk, who could pulverise all the Gentiles of Palestine, but kindly limit ourselves to a few hundred wounded and maimed a day.
My grandfather in the Pale of Settlement complained against the restrictions of the free movement of Jews in the Russian Empire, while in our generation Anatoli Sharansky became a symbol of struggle for human rights. In our own country, the Gentiles are fenced into reservations and concentration camps that the Pale pales in comparison with. A Palestinian cannot go to the next village without the Jewish ausweis, he is forever checked by our Checkists. He can only dream of the sea, washing the shores of his ancestral home - we do not let Palestinians to pollute the Jewish purity of our beaches.
For years, the Jews protested the discrimination in employment and education. In our own state we created the system of total national discrimination. In our state-owned Electric company, out of 13000 employees there are six Gentiles. 0,0004%. Gentiles form forty percent of the population between the Jordan River and the sea, but only one out of four has the right to vote. There are no Gentiles in the Supreme court, in the government, in Air Force, in the secret services. There is not even one Gentile on the board of the main Israeli Liberal newspaper, Haaretz.
That is why all complaints of Jews in the Diaspora deserve to be re-written in the light of the events. We did not fight for the human rights, but for the rights of Jews. We were for the freedom of movement and freedom of choice - for Jews only. We spoke of the universal suffrage, but we meant the right of vote for Jews only. We do not mind occupation and invasion, as long as we invade and occupy. The sight of a child raising hands in front of the machine gun toting thug grieves us only if it is a Jewish child. The Gentile child can be shot at freely.
When Bialik wrote "Devil did not invent a fit punishment for the murder of a child", he actually meant 'a Jewish child'. When he was horrified by the scenes of pogrom, he was horrified that the violence is directed against Jews. Otherwise, there is nothing wrong with pogrom per se. The Jews of Upper Nazareth committed a pogrom of Gentiles in Nazareth, but no pogromchik was tried. Police helped them by murdering few of pogrom victims. Still worse were the pogroms of Ramallah and Beth Jallah, committed with the helicopter gunships and tanks.
Tsarist Russia, 'the land of pogroms', was much hated by our grandfathers, and eventually destroyed by them. Still, hundred years of Jewish pogroms caused fewer casualties than we murder in a week. The most horrible pogrom of Kishinev claimed 45 dead and 600 wounded. Last weeks in Israel, 300 were killed and many thousands wounded. After the pogrom in Tsarist Russia, all writers and intelligentsia condemned the perpetrators. In the Jewish state, hardly few dozens gathered on the demonstration in Tel Aviv, while the Hebrew Writers Union supported the pogrom of Gentiles.
In 1991, the majority of the Russian Jews took the stand against communism and for the private ownership. They actually had in mind Jewish private property, as we confiscate the Gentile property with greatest ease. Go through the best areas of Jerusalem, Talbieh, Old Katamon, Greek and German Colonies, and see the marvellous palaces. They belonged to Gentiles, - Germans, Armenians, Greeks, British, Russians, Palestinians - Christian and Moslem. All of them were confiscated and given to Jews. During last weeks, hundreds of acres of Gentile property were confiscated, and hundreds of Gentile houses seized or demolished.
Just before his arrest, the richest Russian Jewish media-lord Gusinsky came to Israel and expressed his unlimited support. At the same time he asked the world to help him in his fight with the Russian authorities who try to save the TV from his clutches. His support of Israel proves that Mr Gusinsky approves confiscations on the ethnic base. He is just against the confiscations of the Jewish property. He is against Jews being arrested - the Gentiles may rot in prisons forever, as it happens in the Jewish state.
In no time at all we succeeded to undermine the long-term achievements of Jews in the struggle for democracy, human rights and equality. What we did not like about the German Nazis? Their racism? Our racism is not less wide-spread and poisonous. The Russian language newspaper Direct Speech published in Jerusalem asked hundreds of Russian Jews about their feelings towards the Palestinians. Typical answers were: "I would kill all Arabs", "All Arabs must be eliminated", "Arabs must be expelled", "AnArab is an Arab. They have to be eliminated". I am not sure you would get better results in Germany in 1938. Even Nazis did not intend to kill their Jewish enemies until 1941.
Let us put it straight, we were against racism as long as it was somebody else's racism. We were against death squads and Sonderkommando as long as they acted against us. Our own killers, our Jewish Sonderkommando is the object of our tender admiration. The Jewish state is the only place in the world possessing legitimate killer squads, embracing the policy of assassinations, practicing torture on the medieval scale. Do not worry, dear Jewish readers, we torture and assassinate Gentiles only.
We were against ghetto while we were pushed into a ghetto. Now the most liberal Jewish plan calls for creation of a few Gentile ghetto fenced by barbed wire, surrounded by Jewish tanks and Jewish-owned factories at the fence, where the Arbeit will macht the Gentiles frei. We shall give the ghetto full independence previously removing all sources of income and sustenance.
Israelis are brainwashed from kindergarten, they are taught they belong to the Chosen People, who are Uber Alles. They were indoctrinated in belief that the Gentiles are not fully human, and therefore they can be killed and expropriated at will. After all, Israel fulfilled one UN resolution, the one that called Zionism a form of racism. What is upsetting that the internationalist upbringing in the Soviet Union could not withstand the poison of Zionist propaganda of Jewish superiority. I do regret the moral collapse of my own Russian community in the Holy Land.
Now, as the angel wrote his fiery words, as prophets called the people to repent, we have the choice. We can choose the way of Nineveh, to repent, to return the stolen property, to give full equality to Gentiles, to stop discrimination and murder, and hope to be forgiven by God, if not for our sake, then for the sake of our cats and dogs. We can persist in our evil ways as the people of Sodom and wait for the flood of fire and burning sulphur from the angry heavens of Palestine.
The Israeli election campaign between Ehud Barak (or maybe Shimon Peres) and Ariel Sharon is into full swing, with both candidates trying hard to prove to the Israeli Jewish electorate that he will be "tougher" than the other. The election choice, as World Vision Jerusalem director Tom Getman wrote recently, is between the Assassin of al-Aqsa and the Butcher of Beirut--not an appetizing selection. Little hope is expressed on either the Israeli or the Palestinian sides that any form of agreement--comprehensive or otherwise--might be reached during the run-up to elections on February 6.
Meanwhile, the Israeli siege on the occupied territories continues in full strength. The Gaza airport and the Rafah crossing point into Egypt were briefly re-opened, but were closed again in revenge for the Palestinian killing of an Israeli settler from one of the Gush Katif settlements in the Gaza Strip; settlers from Gush Katif also extracted their own revenge, setting fire to farms, greenhouses, and homes of Palestinians living in the Mawasi region surrounded by the Gush Katif settlements. The network of barricades, checkpoints, and economic and travel restrictions remains fully in place in the West Bank.
This update contains three items: first, a brief update of MCC's recent activities; second, an open letter from Dr. Mona al-Farra of the Union of Health Work Committees in Gaza; third, a fiery, prophetic piece by Israel Shamir, a writer for the largest Russian- language paper inside Israel--like many prophets, his language is harsh and painful.
1. MCC Update
Because new Israeli travel restrictions inside the Gaza Strip prevent some people from reaching medical establishments, MCC is partnering with Ard al-Insan (Earth of the People) to sponsor medical days in isolated communities.
MCC has approved renovations in three kindergartens in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. During this past fiscal year, MCC has helped to renovate the bathrooms and water systems of over 15 grassroots kindergartens.
2. Best wishes from Gaza
Dr. Mona El - Farra
Union of Health Work Committees - Gaza
I woke up this morning to hear the shocking news of my mother's house demolition. The Israeli Bulldozers demolished the water well adjacent to the house, as well as tens of houses in the area.
They also uprooted vast areas of bountiful agricultural land, that includes orange, olive and guava groves. Many families in the area are homeless, with the Red Cross just recently supplying them with tents.
I cannot explain to you how bad I feel; all my childhood memories, our Family
(had) proud moments of when water was pumped from that well for the first time are damaged also by this act. I still remember my late father's rare photos, the minute I drank that water out of his hands .I still remember the joy of the relatives, friends and neighbors coming to celebrate this moment with us.
The olive, orange and Guava trees, and many other trees do not carry symbolic value only, but also they have great economic value. They are the lifelines for many families in the area. To
These people, agriculture is their only income.
The Israelis aim to decimate our already annihilated economy, touproot us, to destroy our ulture and to deny our very existence on this land for thousands of years.
It is of worth to tell you that the Israeli army did not give anywarning to us, or to the rest of the families, prior to the house demolitions. The houses were demolished with furniture inside.
As you know my mother lives in that house, but recently I invited her to live temporally with me to be able to take care of her during this difficult time.
My mother feels so bad about what happened. Our thoughts are with our neighbors who are very poor and have no alternative homes.
Beside all what I mentioned, these demolitions are huge blow to the environment. Some of the trees, especially what we call "Jummaiz" trees, are very rare species.
What is happening is a major violation of human rights, economy environment and peace.
I feel angry, helpless, devastated and abandoned. The sad fact is that despite all these crimes against humanity, most Israelis do not care. They know that they will, once again go unpunished by the international community. The support for the Palestinians is extremely fragile. The world is always willing to blame the victim, the Palestinians. However, I will not lose faith. During these difficult moments, I remember a very touching poem, written by the most gifted Palestinian poet, Mahmoud Darwish,
I came back from the dead,
To live
I represent an uncompromising wound,
The brutality of my executor has taught me,
To bite the bullet,
And carry on,
And sing,
I will sing,
I will resist,
I will resist.
I can assure you, that one day, we will replant these trees, rebuild our houses and water will flow again, even stronger than before,hopefully washing away the horrific memories of decades long Israeli aggression.
We may be weak, but justice is on our side and one-day it will prevail All my love,
Dr. Mona El - Farra
Union of Health Work Committees - Gaza
3. Acid Test Failed
Israel Shamir
6 January 2001
This article (offered here in English translation) appeared in the Russian Israeli weekly RI one month ago, and was reprinted since then by numerous newspapers and Internet publications in Russia and in Russian Israel. It is still a subject for a lively debate in the local Russian community as well as in Russia. The author, Israel Shamir, is one of best-known and most respected Russian Israeli writers and journalists. He wrote for Haaretz, BBC, Pravda and translated Agnon, Joyce and Homer into Russian. He lives in Tel Aviv and writes a weekly column in the Vesti, the biggest Russian-language paper in Israel.
Among the colourful revellers of Allenby street, in crowded restaurants of merry-making Tel Aviv nights, a vision came to me, a vision of an angel in battle-dress, chalking up on a wall three words, Mene, Tekel ufarsin. My Angel-English on-line dictionary prompts a translation: you were tested and you failed the test.
These are the darkest days for the people of Israel. They are dark, as the lamentations and protests by us and our fathers turned out to be as genuine as a three-dollar bill. In 1968, a young Jewish Russian kid, I wrote on the walls of my native Russian city, 'Hands off Czechoslovakia'. The beautiful deep voice of a Jewish Russian poet Alexander Galitch intoned: Citizens, our motherland is in danger, our tanks are on foreign soil! Some Russian Jews demonstrated on the Red Square against the invasion, and were beaten up by the police. We protested against the presence of the Russian tanks in Budapest, Prague and Kabul as Russian citizens who value honour above the ill-understood loyalty, humankind above blood ties. In the same time, Jewish American kids demonstrated against their country's intervention in Vietnam, while Jewish boys and girls in Europe fought against racism. Years passed by, and now our Jewish tanks are on the foreign soil.
Our Jewish army murders civilians, demolishes houses, starves millions and imposes the siege on the Palestinian villages. Our crimes exceeded the Russian crimes committed in Chechnya and Afghanistan, the American crimes in Vietnam and Serb crimes in Bosnia. Surely, the Israeli intellectuals demonstrate en masse on our equivalent of Pennsylvania Avenue or Trafalgar Square, American Jews raise their voice against the America-armed killers of Palestinians, Russian Jews speak up for the human rights of the enslaved Gentiles of the Holy Land? No fear, our literati exalt the courage of our Jewish soldiers, venerate the steady hand of our Jewish snipers and glorify the immense humanity of the Jewish folk, who could pulverise all the Gentiles of Palestine, but kindly limit ourselves to a few hundred wounded and maimed a day.
My grandfather in the Pale of Settlement complained against the restrictions of the free movement of Jews in the Russian Empire, while in our generation Anatoli Sharansky became a symbol of struggle for human rights. In our own country, the Gentiles are fenced into reservations and concentration camps that the Pale pales in comparison with. A Palestinian cannot go to the next village without the Jewish ausweis, he is forever checked by our Checkists. He can only dream of the sea, washing the shores of his ancestral home - we do not let Palestinians to pollute the Jewish purity of our beaches.
For years, the Jews protested the discrimination in employment and education. In our own state we created the system of total national discrimination. In our state-owned Electric company, out of 13000 employees there are six Gentiles. 0,0004%. Gentiles form forty percent of the population between the Jordan River and the sea, but only one out of four has the right to vote. There are no Gentiles in the Supreme court, in the government, in Air Force, in the secret services. There is not even one Gentile on the board of the main Israeli Liberal newspaper, Haaretz.
That is why all complaints of Jews in the Diaspora deserve to be re-written in the light of the events. We did not fight for the human rights, but for the rights of Jews. We were for the freedom of movement and freedom of choice - for Jews only. We spoke of the universal suffrage, but we meant the right of vote for Jews only. We do not mind occupation and invasion, as long as we invade and occupy. The sight of a child raising hands in front of the machine gun toting thug grieves us only if it is a Jewish child. The Gentile child can be shot at freely.
When Bialik wrote "Devil did not invent a fit punishment for the murder of a child", he actually meant 'a Jewish child'. When he was horrified by the scenes of pogrom, he was horrified that the violence is directed against Jews. Otherwise, there is nothing wrong with pogrom per se. The Jews of Upper Nazareth committed a pogrom of Gentiles in Nazareth, but no pogromchik was tried. Police helped them by murdering few of pogrom victims. Still worse were the pogroms of Ramallah and Beth Jallah, committed with the helicopter gunships and tanks.
Tsarist Russia, 'the land of pogroms', was much hated by our grandfathers, and eventually destroyed by them. Still, hundred years of Jewish pogroms caused fewer casualties than we murder in a week. The most horrible pogrom of Kishinev claimed 45 dead and 600 wounded. Last weeks in Israel, 300 were killed and many thousands wounded. After the pogrom in Tsarist Russia, all writers and intelligentsia condemned the perpetrators. In the Jewish state, hardly few dozens gathered on the demonstration in Tel Aviv, while the Hebrew Writers Union supported the pogrom of Gentiles.
In 1991, the majority of the Russian Jews took the stand against communism and for the private ownership. They actually had in mind Jewish private property, as we confiscate the Gentile property with greatest ease. Go through the best areas of Jerusalem, Talbieh, Old Katamon, Greek and German Colonies, and see the marvellous palaces. They belonged to Gentiles, - Germans, Armenians, Greeks, British, Russians, Palestinians - Christian and Moslem. All of them were confiscated and given to Jews. During last weeks, hundreds of acres of Gentile property were confiscated, and hundreds of Gentile houses seized or demolished.
Just before his arrest, the richest Russian Jewish media-lord Gusinsky came to Israel and expressed his unlimited support. At the same time he asked the world to help him in his fight with the Russian authorities who try to save the TV from his clutches. His support of Israel proves that Mr Gusinsky approves confiscations on the ethnic base. He is just against the confiscations of the Jewish property. He is against Jews being arrested - the Gentiles may rot in prisons forever, as it happens in the Jewish state.
In no time at all we succeeded to undermine the long-term achievements of Jews in the struggle for democracy, human rights and equality. What we did not like about the German Nazis? Their racism? Our racism is not less wide-spread and poisonous. The Russian language newspaper Direct Speech published in Jerusalem asked hundreds of Russian Jews about their feelings towards the Palestinians. Typical answers were: "I would kill all Arabs", "All Arabs must be eliminated", "Arabs must be expelled", "AnArab is an Arab. They have to be eliminated". I am not sure you would get better results in Germany in 1938. Even Nazis did not intend to kill their Jewish enemies until 1941.
Let us put it straight, we were against racism as long as it was somebody else's racism. We were against death squads and Sonderkommando as long as they acted against us. Our own killers, our Jewish Sonderkommando is the object of our tender admiration. The Jewish state is the only place in the world possessing legitimate killer squads, embracing the policy of assassinations, practicing torture on the medieval scale. Do not worry, dear Jewish readers, we torture and assassinate Gentiles only.
We were against ghetto while we were pushed into a ghetto. Now the most liberal Jewish plan calls for creation of a few Gentile ghetto fenced by barbed wire, surrounded by Jewish tanks and Jewish-owned factories at the fence, where the Arbeit will macht the Gentiles frei. We shall give the ghetto full independence previously removing all sources of income and sustenance.
Israelis are brainwashed from kindergarten, they are taught they belong to the Chosen People, who are Uber Alles. They were indoctrinated in belief that the Gentiles are not fully human, and therefore they can be killed and expropriated at will. After all, Israel fulfilled one UN resolution, the one that called Zionism a form of racism. What is upsetting that the internationalist upbringing in the Soviet Union could not withstand the poison of Zionist propaganda of Jewish superiority. I do regret the moral collapse of my own Russian community in the Holy Land.
Now, as the angel wrote his fiery words, as prophets called the people to repent, we have the choice. We can choose the way of Nineveh, to repent, to return the stolen property, to give full equality to Gentiles, to stop discrimination and murder, and hope to be forgiven by God, if not for our sake, then for the sake of our cats and dogs. We can persist in our evil ways as the people of Sodom and wait for the flood of fire and burning sulphur from the angry heavens of Palestine.
Tuesday, January 16
MCC Palestine Update #9
MCC Palestine Update #9
16 January 2001
The days of the Clinton presidency are numbered, and the chances of any form of agreement before he leaves office are fading fast.
Today, January 11, some roads were opened--however, the internal closure in the occupied territories seems, for the most part, stronger than ever. MCC Palestine has agreed to help connect two agricultural roads; this will connect the villages of Ein Kinya and Deir Ibziya, with the benefit of helping the villagers of Ein Kinya travel during closure conditions, assisting farmers brings goods to market, and protecting agricultural land from confiscation by the settlement of Dolev.
Below is a piece by Haaretz reporter Gideon Levy which speaks movingly of the realities under siege in the occupied territories.
1. A siege at your gates
Gideon Levy
Haaretz
At around nine o'clock in the evening, the stomach pains of 10-year- old Ella in El Sawiya, near Nablus, became much worse. This happened one Friday several weeks ago, at the start of the difficult siege imposed on her village.
Most Israelis are paying very little attention to such "encirclements. ".Ella's father, Hamdan Ahmed, tried to order a taxi, but no driver was prepared to travel at night. He dialed 101 and got through to the Magen David Adom ambulance service, but they explained that he must find a Palestinian ambulance. He didn't have a clue how to do so.
Ella's situation grew more severe and she started to throw up. Her father summoned a neighbor to help him, and together they tried to break through the siege, in order to get Ella to the hospital in Nablus.
Those were the first days of the siege, much better and easier than the siege is now: Then the roads still had roadblocks that were manned by soldiers whom one could at least beg to let the sick girl pass through. According to the father's testimony, the soldiers stopped them and sent them back, in spite of their pleas.
Keep in mind that they only wanted to get as far as Nablus, not into Israel. They tried another route and were stopped by other soldiers. They had to go back home.
A doctor from a nearby village decreed that Ella must be rushed to the hospital. In the morning they tried again, and were again halted by soldiers. A few hours later, Ella died. Dr Riad El-Halu stated that her death was caused by a burst appendix.
This siege has now been operating in the West Bank for three months and most Israelis seem to know nothing about it at all. If they did, perhaps not all of them would treat it so lightly. This cruel siege, unlike anything imposed before it, neither in the previous Intifada nor in the most difficult days of conquest, is taking place not far from our own front doors.
It is only by driving through those areas that one fully realizes its cruelty: cities, towns and villages cut off with impassable barriers. Soldiers are not seen, there are no fences that might possibly be removed. There are only blocks of concrete and mounds of earth some of which, it is said, are booby- trapped, while others are guarded by soldiers who fire from a distance at whomever dares to try and remove them.
With brutality, they close in and block all access to most of the villages and towns in the West Bank. The autonomous Gaza Strip is "only" dissected into three.
If 10-year-old Ella had fallen sick several days later, by which time the "encirclement" had been further improved, there would not even have been a road on which to try to save her - only a scramble on foot, and even that can only be attempted during the day.
The tens of thousands of residents of Hebron and Hawara who are trapped in an endless curfew have been joined by all the residents of the territories in a siege whose barbarity cannot be overstated: neither a woman in childbirth, nor a critically sick person nor someone who is mortally wounded nor a girl with peritonitis can be taken out of their homes.
And what can a resident of the village of Attara do if he has a heart attack? Set out on foot? And what about a seriously injured child in El-Fawar? Should he ride out on a bicycle? Can he bring in a bulldozer to clear the obstruction?
A grave report published last week by the B'Tselem human rights organization accuses Israel of imposing a cruel, collective punishment that has no relationship to security considerations. In truth, it is hard to understand the logic, if that's the name for it, behind this policy of Barak's peace government.
Words are unnecessary to comprehend the seeds of calamity - the justified feelings of hatred and desire for revenge - that are being sown as the result of measures of this kind. In the long term, any instant, imaginary security advantage will exact the price of the suffering it causes in these long, hard nights under siege. Because, what would you do if foreign soldiers were to prevent your daughter, or your neighbor's daughter, from reaching the hospital and, as a result, she died? You'd show restraint? Conciliation?
Make peace with those responsible? This siege is designed only to show public opinion in Israel that "something is being done;" to appease the settlers who demand "let the IDF win;" to make their lives easier even though the price entails tremendous suffering for an entire population; and it is a response to the army and other security agencies whose work is facilitated when two million Palestinians in the West Bank live behind mounds of earth and blocks of concrete.
This bitter reality must at least penetrate into the minds and into the moral consciousness of Israelis. It is doubtful if Ehud Barak and his ministers even know what they are causing. It is doubtful whether any of us, who grew up on the legend of the suffering in the siege of Jerusalem during the War of Independence, considers the fate of Ella and of her people whom Israel has imprisoned in this way, without a trial, without a reason, and without any humanitarian considerations, during this period that is supposedly a time of great reconciliation.
16 January 2001
The days of the Clinton presidency are numbered, and the chances of any form of agreement before he leaves office are fading fast.
Today, January 11, some roads were opened--however, the internal closure in the occupied territories seems, for the most part, stronger than ever. MCC Palestine has agreed to help connect two agricultural roads; this will connect the villages of Ein Kinya and Deir Ibziya, with the benefit of helping the villagers of Ein Kinya travel during closure conditions, assisting farmers brings goods to market, and protecting agricultural land from confiscation by the settlement of Dolev.
Below is a piece by Haaretz reporter Gideon Levy which speaks movingly of the realities under siege in the occupied territories.
1. A siege at your gates
Gideon Levy
Haaretz
At around nine o'clock in the evening, the stomach pains of 10-year- old Ella in El Sawiya, near Nablus, became much worse. This happened one Friday several weeks ago, at the start of the difficult siege imposed on her village.
Most Israelis are paying very little attention to such "encirclements. ".Ella's father, Hamdan Ahmed, tried to order a taxi, but no driver was prepared to travel at night. He dialed 101 and got through to the Magen David Adom ambulance service, but they explained that he must find a Palestinian ambulance. He didn't have a clue how to do so.
Ella's situation grew more severe and she started to throw up. Her father summoned a neighbor to help him, and together they tried to break through the siege, in order to get Ella to the hospital in Nablus.
Those were the first days of the siege, much better and easier than the siege is now: Then the roads still had roadblocks that were manned by soldiers whom one could at least beg to let the sick girl pass through. According to the father's testimony, the soldiers stopped them and sent them back, in spite of their pleas.
Keep in mind that they only wanted to get as far as Nablus, not into Israel. They tried another route and were stopped by other soldiers. They had to go back home.
A doctor from a nearby village decreed that Ella must be rushed to the hospital. In the morning they tried again, and were again halted by soldiers. A few hours later, Ella died. Dr Riad El-Halu stated that her death was caused by a burst appendix.
This siege has now been operating in the West Bank for three months and most Israelis seem to know nothing about it at all. If they did, perhaps not all of them would treat it so lightly. This cruel siege, unlike anything imposed before it, neither in the previous Intifada nor in the most difficult days of conquest, is taking place not far from our own front doors.
It is only by driving through those areas that one fully realizes its cruelty: cities, towns and villages cut off with impassable barriers. Soldiers are not seen, there are no fences that might possibly be removed. There are only blocks of concrete and mounds of earth some of which, it is said, are booby- trapped, while others are guarded by soldiers who fire from a distance at whomever dares to try and remove them.
With brutality, they close in and block all access to most of the villages and towns in the West Bank. The autonomous Gaza Strip is "only" dissected into three.
If 10-year-old Ella had fallen sick several days later, by which time the "encirclement" had been further improved, there would not even have been a road on which to try to save her - only a scramble on foot, and even that can only be attempted during the day.
The tens of thousands of residents of Hebron and Hawara who are trapped in an endless curfew have been joined by all the residents of the territories in a siege whose barbarity cannot be overstated: neither a woman in childbirth, nor a critically sick person nor someone who is mortally wounded nor a girl with peritonitis can be taken out of their homes.
And what can a resident of the village of Attara do if he has a heart attack? Set out on foot? And what about a seriously injured child in El-Fawar? Should he ride out on a bicycle? Can he bring in a bulldozer to clear the obstruction?
A grave report published last week by the B'Tselem human rights organization accuses Israel of imposing a cruel, collective punishment that has no relationship to security considerations. In truth, it is hard to understand the logic, if that's the name for it, behind this policy of Barak's peace government.
Words are unnecessary to comprehend the seeds of calamity - the justified feelings of hatred and desire for revenge - that are being sown as the result of measures of this kind. In the long term, any instant, imaginary security advantage will exact the price of the suffering it causes in these long, hard nights under siege. Because, what would you do if foreign soldiers were to prevent your daughter, or your neighbor's daughter, from reaching the hospital and, as a result, she died? You'd show restraint? Conciliation?
Make peace with those responsible? This siege is designed only to show public opinion in Israel that "something is being done;" to appease the settlers who demand "let the IDF win;" to make their lives easier even though the price entails tremendous suffering for an entire population; and it is a response to the army and other security agencies whose work is facilitated when two million Palestinians in the West Bank live behind mounds of earth and blocks of concrete.
This bitter reality must at least penetrate into the minds and into the moral consciousness of Israelis. It is doubtful if Ehud Barak and his ministers even know what they are causing. It is doubtful whether any of us, who grew up on the legend of the suffering in the siege of Jerusalem during the War of Independence, considers the fate of Ella and of her people whom Israel has imprisoned in this way, without a trial, without a reason, and without any humanitarian considerations, during this period that is supposedly a time of great reconciliation.
Wednesday, January 10
MCC Palestine Update #8
MCC Palestine Update #8
10 January 2001
New Year's Greetings from Jerusalem! This past Sunday marked Orthodox Christmas in Bethlehem--as with Western Christmas, the city saw few tourists, and the mood about local Orthodox Christians was severely dampened by the tanks poised around the Bethlehem district.
The past 10 days have been rife with speculation and rumor concerning the possibility of some form of Palestinian-Israeli agreement during Bill Clinton's final days in office. MCC's Palestinian partners, like Palestinians in general, do not have much idea about whether or not Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat will sign an agreement; all, however, worry that any U.S. "mediated"/imposed document will not lead to the realization of internationally-guaranteed rights for the Palestinians.
The Palestinian predicament, then, becomes how to reject an agreement which fails to secure basic rights without being portrayed yet again as the nay-sayers who spurn a "generous" Israeli offer. Included in this update are two items: first, a brief note concerning a new MCC project; and second, an opinion piece by Prof. Rashid Khalidi of the University of Chicago which appeared in the New York Times and which provides a cogent analysis of the Israeli "peace" on offer.
MCC project update
In cooperation with The Center for Agricultural Services, MCC will be providing 40 families in the heart of Israeli-controlled Hebron with rabbits and chickens for breeding and sale. Palestinians in the Israeli-controlled part of Hebron have been under daily curfew for well over 50 days, allowed out only for part of the daylight hours. The curfew has been devastating economically for residents of the area.
This project will not only help provide a source of food for those under curfew, it will also provide a small source of supplemental income. The Center for Agricultural Services will be responsible not only for distributing the animals and materials to the recipients, but will also do training in animal husbandry and provide extension services.
1. The New Parameters of Reconciliation
Rashid I. Khalidi
New York Times, 27 December 2000
President Clinton has now presented the Israelis and the Palestinians with a set of proposals relating to Jerusalem, refugees and sovereignty over territory in hopes of achieving a peace accord in the next three weeks. Regardless of whether agreement can be reached in this short time, it's clear that much has changed among both Palestinians and Israelis as a result of the Al Aqsa intifada, which is now three months old.
This popular uprising broke out because Palestinian willingness to tolerate the suffocating restrictions imposed by Israel since Oslo accords was exhausted. Palestinians associate Oslo with the expansion of Jewish settlements on land that had been Palestinian, the building of settler- only bypass roads on Arab land, myriad restrictions on movement, the doubling since 1991 of the number of settlers, and the containment of Palestinian communities to a fraction of the West Bank and Gaza.
Palestinian tolerance will not be extended to another unsatisfactory agreement, or to those who negotiate it. The limits that public opinion places on compromises made by the Palestinian leadership -- limits brushed aside by some at the time of the Camp David meetings last summer -- should now be apparent.
This is particularly true regarding the right of return for Palestinian refugees who fled or were driven out in 1948. Israelis who ignored the humiliating restrictions their government imposed on the Palestinians after 1993, and who failed to listen to Palestinian complaints, may have been shocked by the intensity of the resistance.
Some Israelis have fallen for the canard that the Palestinians do not want peace. In fact, most want simply to live in dignity, and to end the situation in which 15 Palestinian cantons in 17.2 percent of the West Bank and 60 percent of the Gaza Strip (themselves only 22 percent of pre-1948 Palestine) are surrounded by a sea of Israeli occupation and settlement.
The recent Intifada itself has had a profound impact on Palestinians. They have been deeply affected by the nearly 350 killed (in a 10-to-1 Palestinian-to-Israeli ratio), the 10,000 wounded in the past three months, according to B'Tselem, an Israeli human rights organization, and Israel's sniper assassinations of nearly 20 Palestinians. They have been traumatized by Israel's helicopter and tank fire into Palestinian communities, and suffered collective punishment in the form of a 13- week economic stranglehold on 3 million people under the pretext of security.
These acts of war, mainly inside Palestinian cities, towns and villages, have scarred the psyche of a whole people and have reinforced their unwillingness to compromise on their basic demands. The latest Intifada may have had an effect in Israel as well. It has surely shattered the belief that Palestinians would accept Israeli sovereignty over the Islamic and Christian holy places in Jerusalem and over nearby Arab neighborhoods.
The Israeli discourse of the past 33 years about exclusive sovereignty over Jerusalem may be giving way to a realization that Israel cannot rule over an Arab city of nearly a quarter million (350,000 with outlying suburbs) -- the largest in Palestine and the country's capital -- while expecting Palestinians and Arabs to accept this situation passively.
Similarly, the Israeli belief (embodied in Prime Minister Ehud Barak's proposal at Camp David in July) that the Palestinians would accept a "state" encompassing several disconnected islands, and without land connections to Egypt and Jordan, may be disappearing under the weight of the intifada's low-grade war against the settlements.
Large numbers of Israelis are beginning to understand that they can have settlements or peace, but not both. Finally, the hope that the Palestinians would be satisfied with third-party compensation for the refugees, with no Israeli apology for the harm done to the Palestinians in 1948, no restitution of their property and little or no return of refugees, is losing force.
Dealing with this traumatic event in the Palestinian national memory -- one that is associated with the founding of Israel -- will require a courageous look at history as well as farsightedness and a spirit of equity.
The two sides may not be ready for this. Nevertheless, this history is the root of the conflict. And however difficult it may be for Israelis to accept, they have a profound responsibility for the refugee problem, which must be fully borne if ever there is to be a reconciliation between the two peoples. Whether Israel can accept these realities, and deal decisively with the settlements established by Labor and Likud in Gaza and the West Bank over the past 33 years, is an open question. But they must be confronted.
Both peoples will also have to accept the need to share Jerusalem as the capital of two states, and to arrive at a just and mutually acceptable settlement of a refugee problem that has festered for over five decades. This is a tall order for even the most courageous leaders on both sides. We may soon see whether those in place today are up to it.
Rashid I. Khalidi, director of the Center for International Studies at the University of Chicago. He advised the Palestinian delegation to the Mideast peace talks from 1991 to 1993.
10 January 2001
New Year's Greetings from Jerusalem! This past Sunday marked Orthodox Christmas in Bethlehem--as with Western Christmas, the city saw few tourists, and the mood about local Orthodox Christians was severely dampened by the tanks poised around the Bethlehem district.
The past 10 days have been rife with speculation and rumor concerning the possibility of some form of Palestinian-Israeli agreement during Bill Clinton's final days in office. MCC's Palestinian partners, like Palestinians in general, do not have much idea about whether or not Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat will sign an agreement; all, however, worry that any U.S. "mediated"/imposed document will not lead to the realization of internationally-guaranteed rights for the Palestinians.
The Palestinian predicament, then, becomes how to reject an agreement which fails to secure basic rights without being portrayed yet again as the nay-sayers who spurn a "generous" Israeli offer. Included in this update are two items: first, a brief note concerning a new MCC project; and second, an opinion piece by Prof. Rashid Khalidi of the University of Chicago which appeared in the New York Times and which provides a cogent analysis of the Israeli "peace" on offer.
MCC project update
In cooperation with The Center for Agricultural Services, MCC will be providing 40 families in the heart of Israeli-controlled Hebron with rabbits and chickens for breeding and sale. Palestinians in the Israeli-controlled part of Hebron have been under daily curfew for well over 50 days, allowed out only for part of the daylight hours. The curfew has been devastating economically for residents of the area.
This project will not only help provide a source of food for those under curfew, it will also provide a small source of supplemental income. The Center for Agricultural Services will be responsible not only for distributing the animals and materials to the recipients, but will also do training in animal husbandry and provide extension services.
1. The New Parameters of Reconciliation
Rashid I. Khalidi
New York Times, 27 December 2000
President Clinton has now presented the Israelis and the Palestinians with a set of proposals relating to Jerusalem, refugees and sovereignty over territory in hopes of achieving a peace accord in the next three weeks. Regardless of whether agreement can be reached in this short time, it's clear that much has changed among both Palestinians and Israelis as a result of the Al Aqsa intifada, which is now three months old.
This popular uprising broke out because Palestinian willingness to tolerate the suffocating restrictions imposed by Israel since Oslo accords was exhausted. Palestinians associate Oslo with the expansion of Jewish settlements on land that had been Palestinian, the building of settler- only bypass roads on Arab land, myriad restrictions on movement, the doubling since 1991 of the number of settlers, and the containment of Palestinian communities to a fraction of the West Bank and Gaza.
Palestinian tolerance will not be extended to another unsatisfactory agreement, or to those who negotiate it. The limits that public opinion places on compromises made by the Palestinian leadership -- limits brushed aside by some at the time of the Camp David meetings last summer -- should now be apparent.
This is particularly true regarding the right of return for Palestinian refugees who fled or were driven out in 1948. Israelis who ignored the humiliating restrictions their government imposed on the Palestinians after 1993, and who failed to listen to Palestinian complaints, may have been shocked by the intensity of the resistance.
Some Israelis have fallen for the canard that the Palestinians do not want peace. In fact, most want simply to live in dignity, and to end the situation in which 15 Palestinian cantons in 17.2 percent of the West Bank and 60 percent of the Gaza Strip (themselves only 22 percent of pre-1948 Palestine) are surrounded by a sea of Israeli occupation and settlement.
The recent Intifada itself has had a profound impact on Palestinians. They have been deeply affected by the nearly 350 killed (in a 10-to-1 Palestinian-to-Israeli ratio), the 10,000 wounded in the past three months, according to B'Tselem, an Israeli human rights organization, and Israel's sniper assassinations of nearly 20 Palestinians. They have been traumatized by Israel's helicopter and tank fire into Palestinian communities, and suffered collective punishment in the form of a 13- week economic stranglehold on 3 million people under the pretext of security.
These acts of war, mainly inside Palestinian cities, towns and villages, have scarred the psyche of a whole people and have reinforced their unwillingness to compromise on their basic demands. The latest Intifada may have had an effect in Israel as well. It has surely shattered the belief that Palestinians would accept Israeli sovereignty over the Islamic and Christian holy places in Jerusalem and over nearby Arab neighborhoods.
The Israeli discourse of the past 33 years about exclusive sovereignty over Jerusalem may be giving way to a realization that Israel cannot rule over an Arab city of nearly a quarter million (350,000 with outlying suburbs) -- the largest in Palestine and the country's capital -- while expecting Palestinians and Arabs to accept this situation passively.
Similarly, the Israeli belief (embodied in Prime Minister Ehud Barak's proposal at Camp David in July) that the Palestinians would accept a "state" encompassing several disconnected islands, and without land connections to Egypt and Jordan, may be disappearing under the weight of the intifada's low-grade war against the settlements.
Large numbers of Israelis are beginning to understand that they can have settlements or peace, but not both. Finally, the hope that the Palestinians would be satisfied with third-party compensation for the refugees, with no Israeli apology for the harm done to the Palestinians in 1948, no restitution of their property and little or no return of refugees, is losing force.
Dealing with this traumatic event in the Palestinian national memory -- one that is associated with the founding of Israel -- will require a courageous look at history as well as farsightedness and a spirit of equity.
The two sides may not be ready for this. Nevertheless, this history is the root of the conflict. And however difficult it may be for Israelis to accept, they have a profound responsibility for the refugee problem, which must be fully borne if ever there is to be a reconciliation between the two peoples. Whether Israel can accept these realities, and deal decisively with the settlements established by Labor and Likud in Gaza and the West Bank over the past 33 years, is an open question. But they must be confronted.
Both peoples will also have to accept the need to share Jerusalem as the capital of two states, and to arrive at a just and mutually acceptable settlement of a refugee problem that has festered for over five decades. This is a tall order for even the most courageous leaders on both sides. We may soon see whether those in place today are up to it.
Rashid I. Khalidi, director of the Center for International Studies at the University of Chicago. He advised the Palestinian delegation to the Mideast peace talks from 1991 to 1993.
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